The Best Lesson
by AndAllThatMishigas
Summary: AU. Jed Bartlet leads a quiet life as an Economics professor, but everything is turned upside down when he meets Biology professor Abbey Barrington. Features the whole tww gang, though with quite a few twists thrown in.
1. Chapter 1

**The Best Lesson**

 _Chapter One  
_

"I don't know why I have to go to this thing. I don't even know this woman. Why am I celebrating her birthday?" Jed Bartlet grumbled as he tied his tie in mirror inside the closet in his office.

His research assistant, Charlie Young, smirked as he waited patiently for his mentor. "Dean Landingham said all the department heads have to go. And since you're the head of the Economics department, you have to go."

"Well, at least Leo has to suffer with me," Jed reasoned. "Though he won't have all his political science buddies there with him, right?"

"I don't know, sir. Dean Fiderer is the head of the College of Sciences, so I would guess that other than the required department heads, the other guests will be her personal friends. And I would assume most of those would be professors of the hard sciences."

"Thanks for coming with me, Charlie. Science people are complicated and weird. You, me, and Leo can keep to ourselves at the open bar. Or maybe not. I don't know if Leo is sober this week or not," Jed added bitterly. His best friend was a brilliant professor of political science and did an exemplary job running that department, but he certainly had a problem with alcohol. Sometimes he had everything under control and sometimes he fell off the wagon. Jed did his best to support him in whatever he chose, whether it was putting him in a cab, letting him sleep on the couch, or pouring every bottle of booze down the drain.

Charlie decided not to touch the comment about Professor McGarry. "It's my pleasure to come with you, sir. Also, my girlfriend will be there with her mother, so this is a nice way for us both to get to go to the party."

"I didn't know you had a girlfriend, Charlie!"

"Oh, well, I try to keep my personal life away from the work we do. It keeps things less complicated."

Jed smiled. "So tell me about your girl. What's her name? And why will she be at Dean Fiderer's birthday party with her mother?"

"Her name is Zoey. She works as a research assistant to the head of the Biology department, Professor Barrington, who also happens to be Zoey's mom," Charlie replied.

"I know I'm bringing you because I haven't got a spouse or significant other to bring as a date, but why is Professor Barrington bringing her daughter and not her husband?" Jed asked curiously.

"Zoey's parents are divorced," Charlie explained. "She hasn't really seen her dad since she was a kid."

"That is unfortunate but does explain the situation." Jed checked his watch. "Alright, we'd better go. You'll have to introduce me to Zoey when you see her."

At the party, Zoey was craning her neck in every direction to find Charlie.

"Zoey, would you stop doing that? You're going to pull a muscle, and I won't let you get out of microscope work because it hurts."

Zoey turned to her mother and glared. "I was going to say you look really nice tonight, but now you're being snotty so I won't say anything at all."

Abbey chuckled. "Well, jokes on you, because you basically said it anyway." But Abbey was quite pleased at her daughter's half-compliment. She had put in a little extra effort to look nice for Debbie's party. There were a lot of influential people there and most of them didn't know the head of the Biology department. Or if they did, they never saw her out of her lab coat. In recent years, Abbey had done nothing but work. Thank god Zoey worked with her or they probably would never see each other. So for tonight, Abbey had forced herself to schedule time to get her hair done and buy a new dress. And in deep red satin, Abbey Barrington felt both beautiful and strong. Almost everyone else was wearing black or other dark colors, so she stood out more than she'd originally planned. But she took it in stride, standing as tall as her five-foot-three stature would allow. She could feel people's eyes on her, and she quite liked it.

"They're here!" Zoey exclaimed excitedly.  
"I don't know what the big deal is," Abbey responded. "You see Charlie all the time. I swear that when he's not working with that Econ professor of his, he's at our house!"

Abbey followed Zoey's gaze to see Charlie, looking quite dapper in his suit, followed by a man about Abbey's age. The man turned his head to listen to Charlie say something and began to laugh. Abbey felt as though she'd been punched in the stomach, getting the wind knocked out of her. She shook herself as they approached, bringing herself back to reality.

"Hey, Zoey," Charlie greeted, giving his girlfriend a soft peck on the check. "This is Professor Bartlet, head of the Economics department and my research supervisor."

Zoey shook the professor's hand. "It's really nice to meet you. Charlie's told me so much about you."

"Well, that's nice because Charlie hasn't told me anything about you. I didn't even know he had a girlfriend until tonight."

"Hey, I was just trying to keep it professional," Charlie defended.

"Well, that's dumb, because my research supervisor gave birth to me, so obviously we don't really follow rules of professionalism," Zoey countered.

Charlie ignored that snarky comment, giving a small laugh and quickly moving on. "Professor Bartlet, this is Professor Barrington, head of Biology. And Zoey's mother."

As Abbey shook his hand, she noticed his left hand had no ring. She smirked to herself, knowing she could flirt with confidence now. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Professor Bartlet. I'm Abbey."

"You can call me Jed."

"Jed. That's an interesting name. Is it short for something? Jedidiah? Maybe Jethro?"

"No, my full first name is actually Josiah."

"Are you sure you don't like Jethro better?" she teased. Her nose wrinkled as she smiled at him.

"Jed's just fine with me."

Charlie interjected, "Professor Bartlet is a direct descendant of Josiah Bartlett, who signed the Declaration of Independence and became the first governor of New Hampshire."

"Oh my, you have quite the namesake. Even if you do go by Jed." Her green eyes sparkled with mirth.

Jed wasn't sure what to think. Was this woman kidding? Was she just eccentric? Or maybe just nuts? He almost didn't care. She was exquisitely beautiful and the tone of her voice made tingles go down his spine.

Out of the corner of his eye, Jed saw a flash of movement. He looked away from Abbey to see Leo by the bar waving at him. "I'm being summoned to the bar. Charlie, I'll leave you here with your lovely girl and her lovely mother. Ladies, it was a pleasure to meet you," Jed said politely before making his way over to Leo.

"Who were you talking to?" Leo asked, handing his friend a glass of scotch.

Jed took a big swallow. "Charlie's girlfriend and her mother."

"Why are they here?"

He just waved his hand in a gesture that made it very clear he didn't want to talk about it. Leo shrugged and took a sip of tonic water. Jed looked at him curiously. "You aren't drinking?"

"Nah, I'm trying sobriety again."

Jed smiled encouragingly. "That's great. You know I'm here for you."

"Thanks. I'll need to call you when I fall down drunk somewhere the next time."

"Hey, don't set yourself up for failure."

"Well, we can't discount past experiences. But I think this one might stick," Leo replied.

"Oh? Does this mean you've got a date?" Jed asked, knowing how his friend tried to behave when he had a woman he wanted to impress. It was rare, but it did happen.

"As a matter of fact, I do."

"Jordan?"

Leo shook his head. "It never worked for us. Schedules and all that. No, this one is new."

"Who is she?"

But Leo just waved his hand, just as Jed has done, effectively closing off that topic of conversation.

"Okay, fine. Tell me another time. But I'm happy for you, Leo, really I am," Jed told him.

The two men were interrupted by a very tall, elegant woman in a black satin gown. "There you two are! God, I've been wandering around here for twenty minutes trying to find one person I know."

Jed laughed. "CJ, didn't you bring a date?"

"Toby offered to come with me, but we all know he'd just whine the whole time. So no, I didn't bring a date," she replied. "Didn't any of you bring dates?"

"I brought Charlie so he could network a little. And Leo's got a new lady that he won't talk about," Jed teased.

"Leo!"

"We're not gonna talk about this," Leo insisted.

"Fine, we won't talk about it. But still, that's very exciting, Leo. You have very good taste in women, so I'm looking forward to meeting this one," CJ said with a smile.

Jed nodded. "Well put, Claudia Jean."

"Thank you, sir."

"We've talked about this, CJ," Jed sighed, "You're my colleague. And you have been for eight years. You can call me Jed."

She looked at him with affection. "Sorry, sir. You were Professor Bartlet to me on the first day of Econ 101, and you'll be Professor Bartlet forever."

"You know it makes me feel really old that you were my student twenty-something years ago."

CJ just shrugged as she let her gaze wander the room. "You know, it's amazing that both colleges at the university are run by women, and I love Dean Landingham and Dean Fiderer, but it's a little ridiculous that I'm the only female department head."

"Biology has a woman," Jed informed her. "Professor Barrington." He pointed out the short woman in the red dress.

CJ looked to where he pointed. "She's a department head? Of biology? Wow."

"Go say hi," Jed suggested. "She's a little odd, but I think you two should know each other."

"I'll go over and introduce myself," CJ reasoned. "You're acting very strange and Leo's sober and none of the boys are here, so this party is sort of a drag."

Leo laughed as CJ walked away. "You know, she's right. You are acting kinda strange. Who is this Professor Barrington?"

"Charlie's girlfriend's mom."

"She's over there in the red dress?"  
Jed nodded.

Leo started to laugh heartily. "Oh wow. Never thought I'd see the day Jed Bartlet got flustered by a beautiful woman."

"I am not flustered!" Jed protested. But he could feel his cheeks grow warm.

"There you two are!" The men were interrupted once again by another woman. Dean Landingham, head of the College of Humanities, came over to see them. "How did I know that I'd find the two of you by the bar?"

"You're looking well tonight, Dean Landingham," Jed told the older woman with a smirk.

"I'm feeling very well tonight, Jed." She turned to Leo. "Now, why are you laughing so much? What have you two done? I swear, you're no better than Josh and Sam. And I know Donna was disappointed, but there was a good reason I didn't let them come."

"Dean Landingham, do you know Professor Barrington?" Leo asked.

Jed could have smacked him.

"I don't know her personally, but Dean Fiderer speaks highly of her. I hear she's brilliant and works harder than the rest of the Biology department combined. She's a great face for the department as well." Dean Landingham looked over to see CJ speaking with Abbey. "Oh, I see CJ's found her. That's good. I'm sure they'll get along well."

By the grace of God, the subtle background music stopped and a spotlight landed on the stage where Dean Fiderer stood to make her birthday speech. Following her rambling—which covered everything from praising the physics department to commenting on the viability of alpacas for profit—the party started to wind down. The dedicated ones took to the dance floor. The uninterested started to trickle out into the night. Jed wanted to leave as soon as humanly possible.

Charlie came over to Jed just as he was starting to look for his young research assistant. Accompanying Charlie were Zoey and Abbey Barrington.

"Sir, I'm going to take Zoey home, if that's alright with you," Charlie told Jed.

"You kids have fun," Jed replied with a smile.

Charlie and Zoey left hand in hand, leaving Abbey standing near Jed. She ordered a vodka from the bar to calm the butterflies in her stomach. "I'm sorry if I offended you earlier with my stupid jokes about your name," she blurted at him. "I spend most of my time in a lab and Zoey says I don't know how to interact with humans anymore."

Jed chuckled. "No offense taken. Though I do feel at a disadvantage. Charlie seems to have told you and your daughter all about me, but I know nothing about you."

"Abigail Barrington. Doctorate in molecular biology. Divorced, one nearly-grown child. Fan of alcohol, jazz standards, and Thomas Aquinas."

"You're a little weird," Jed said.

Abbey just shrugged. "By the way, thank you for sending CJ Cregg over to meet me. She's utterly charming and I quite like her already."

"CJ is incredible. I'm sure she told you she's the head of the Communications department. She was just named department head last year, but she's great."

Abbey looked at him suspiciously. "You're quite proud of her. Ex-girlfriend?"

Jed was taken aback. "No, not at all! She was a student of mine back when she went to school here. CJ was in my very first Econ 101 class."

"Well that's much better," Abbey replied with a smile. "You aren't married, are you? Charlie didn't say anything, but I don't see a ring."

"No, widower."

"Oh, I'm so sorry! Here I am, yammering on like an insensitive idiot."

"Don't apologize. It was a very long time ago. I don't think Charlie even knows."

While Abbey tried to think of something to say that wasn't completely stupid, Leo returned to Jed's side.

"Hey, sorry to step in, but I'm headed out. Do you need a ride?" he asked his friend.

For not the first time, Jed wished he could will Leo away. "Yeah, I think so," Jed replied, downing the last of his third glass of scotch. "Professor Barrington, this is Leo McGarry, head of Political Science."

Leo shook Abbey's hand. "It's very nice to meet you, Professor Barrington. And may I say, that is a stunning dress you're wearing. It does credit to the stunning woman wearing it."

Abbey started to laugh. "My, aren't you the smooth talker!"

"Yeah, yeah. You know, Leo's a recovering alcoholic and I think the years of booze have permanently destroyed the part of his brain with inhibitions."

"Hey, I could do the foxtrot right here, right now," Leo fired back.

Jed just rolled his eyes and gave him a small push toward the door. He turned to Abbey. "Professor, it was lovely to meet you. I'm sure we'll see each other around campus." He nudged Leo again and as they walked out of the party, Jed muttered, "Quit getting your mojo all over the place. I thought you already had a woman. Unless it's that woman, in which case, good luck."

Leo laughed. "No, it's not that one. But don't worry. She doesn't want me. She's obviously crazy about you."

Jed didn't know what to say to that. But he smiled to himself. Transfixed in his mind's eye, all Jed could see was red satin fabric covering the perfectly accentuated curves of her body. And the sparkle of her green eyes. And that wrinkle of her nose when she was teasing him.


	2. Chapter 2

_Chapter Two  
_

Debbie Fiderer noticed that only a few guests were left at her party. One of them was at the bar, looking a little lonely in her red dress. Debbie went over say hello. "Abbey, you're too pretty to drink yourself into a stupor."

Abbey turned to Debbie with a smile on her face. "I wasn't alone until just a minute ago, I promise."

"Did you bring a date tonight like I recommended?" Debbie asked pointedly.

"Just Zoey."

"Did you meet anybody?"

Abbey sighed. "You won't quit, will you? My god, most employers would be ecstatic to have a staff member devoted only to their work. But not you, Dean Fiderer. No, you want us all paired off like you're Noah and we're your little pets."

Debbie chuckled. "Something like that. I just want you to be happy."

"I know that. And I'm happy the way I am," Abbey insisted.

"And I know that. But a gorgeous, brilliant woman like you deserves everything in this world, and if I can help you get that, I'd like to try."

"Haven't you been divorced three times?"

"My ever-changing marital status is only proof of my undying faith in the possibility of true love," Debbie insisted. "I can't help it if I confuse lust for burgeoning love. And you can't say I haven't had my fun," she added with a smirk.

Abbey laughed. "You are too much. Though while I have you here, I was wondering if you know anything about the head of the Econ department."

"Bartlet runs that right?" Debbie asked. When Abbey nodded, Debbie continued, "Yeah, I don't know him personally, but Delores Landingham speaks the world of him. She's known him most of his life, apparently. Why do you ask?"

"I met him tonight and he seemed interesting. Besides, Zoey's boyfriend is his research assistant. I've heard about him from Charlie, but I was curious about an administrative and adult perspective."

Debbie's dark eyes went wide, sparkling with excitement. "Oh my god does Abbey Barrington have a crush on someone? Hell must have frozen over!"

Abbey pursed her lips. "I don't quite like that phrasing, but I will say that I'm intrigued."

"He's good-looking?"

Abbey was about to make another protest in denial, but she couldn't help herself. "God yes," she replied emphatically, eliciting a loud cackle from Debbie.

Meanwhile, Leo wouldn't leave Jed alone as they drove back to Jed's house a few miles from campus. "You like her! I can't believe it. I don't think I've ever seen you interested in a woman before. The boys are gonna love this!"

Jed just stayed quiet. He knew better than to let Leo get under his skin. That didn't stop it from happening, but Jed did know enough to not engage in taunting of this sort. He'd have to save up his energy for fending off Leo's posse of political punks over the next week.

And sure enough, as soon as Jed walked down the hallway shared by the Economics and Political Science departments, Josh Lyman and Sam Seaborn began their taunting.

"So Leo tells us you met someone," Josh began.

Jed rolled his eyes, knowing exactly what was coming. "Professor Lyman, don't you have your Domestic Policy class to teach?"

"Not until ten. I've got a little free time," Josh replied with a smirk. He was failing at his attempt at a casual demeanor; his dimples were showing.

Sam took over. "We're just surprised is all. We were talking earlier and we don't know we've ever seen you interested in a woman. You're like a monk or something."

"I prepare lesson plans and run a department. And I wrote a book," Jed fired back. "What have you done in the last year, Professor Seaborn? Other than date four different women and teach three sections of the Political History prerequisite."

Josh began to laugh riotously. "Boy does he have you pegged!"

"Hey, it was not four!" Sam defended.

"You and Ainsley broke up three times, didn't you?" Josh asked knowingly.

Sam nodded. "And we're done for good. She's teaching Ethics this semester, and she got a little too righteous. Even for her," he added bitterly. "And on that note, I think I'm going to call Mallory and see if she's free tonight." Sam brightened considerably at the idea.

At that moment, Leo walked into earshot. "Sam, what was my one rule?" he said angrily.

"I'm allowed to date your daughter if that's what she wants and I never involve you in any way," Sam recited.

"And talking about calling Mallory when you're in my hallway is getting me involved, so stop it."

"Hey, it's my hallway too!" Jed corrected.

Leo just shook his head. "Don't you people have anything better to do with you time?"

Josh shrugged. "I've been married for six years. I can't help if I want to live vicariously through you guys."

"Oh sure. A divorced alcoholic, a nerdy widower, and a dysfunctional serial monogamist. We're great fun," Leo said, his tone dripping in sarcasm.

Josh turned to Jed. "Oh, by the way, Donna got invited to guest-curate the campus museum and she wanted to see if you had any ideas or requests."

Jed chuckled. "I don't know how I could possibly be of any assistance of a French Impressionism professor, but I'll give it a little thought and call her tomorrow."

Charlie arrived to find the group of professors conversing in the hallway. He smiled tentatively.

As soon as Jed saw Charlie walk up, he immediately felt a flutter of panic. "Leo, you free for lunch?"

"Nah, I got Margaret today." Leo sighed in exasperation. "How that woman went from being my research assistant to teaching Introductory Physics is beyond me. But she makes sure we keep in touch, so I guess it's time for our monthly lunch."

Jed smiled. "I always liked her. It's so rare to find a person who is capable of anything and is interested in everything."

"So someone like you, you mean," Charlie translated teasingly.

"Hey Charlie, you were at the party the other night. Did…" Josh began.

But Jed cut him off. "Come on, Charlie. We've got work to do." He ushered his young assistant away as quickly as he could.

On the other side of campus, Abbey was pacing tapping a pen on her desk as she stared at the phone. It wasn't a bad idea, per se, but it wasn't an entirely honest idea. But in a flurry of bravery, Abbey picked up the receiver and dialed.

"Hello?"

"Hi, this is Abbey Barrington. We met at Dean Fiderer's party the other night. And I enjoyed meeting you, so I thought I'd call and see if you wanted to meet for coffee later."

"I would love that! I'm teaching for the bulk of the morning. How about we meet at three at the coffee shop in the University Center?"

Abbey smiled. "That sounds perfect. I'll see you then." She hung up and felt quite pleased with herself.

"You will never guess who just asked me for coffee," CJ said excitedly.

"Someone much more interesting than me, clearly, seeing how you picked up the phone in the middle of my sentence," Toby replied.

CJ gave him a look indicating that she would have no part in his moping. "Remember I told you I met that Biology professor?"

"Yeah, Abbey, right?"

"Yeah, Abbey Barrington. She's smart and gorgeous and Charlie is dating her daughter, and she asked me for coffee."

"And you're excited about that?"

"Yes. She's been a department head a lot longer than I have. And I need more female friends. You and Josh and Sam and Will are exhausting sometimes. I have Donna, but she and Josh are a little too married sometimes."

"Well they are married, so that makes sense," Toby replied with a deadpan expression.

"Anyway, I'm going for coffee with her at three and I'm excited, okay?"

Toby held up his hands in defense. "That's fine! I didn't say anything!"

She pointed her finger at him in a teasing threat. "Let's keep it that way."

At three o'clock exactly, CJ arrived at the campus coffee shop, annoyed at herself for feeling mildly nervous for such a casual meeting.

Abbey was already there, sipping her coffee. "CJ, hi!" she greeted.

"Hi!" CJ replied brightly. "I hope you haven't waited long."

"No, I just sat down with my latte a minute ago. Feel free to take your time ordering something, if you want."

"Oh, I'm fine for now. So hi, how are you?" CJ asked, feeling supremely awkward.

Abbey smiled kindly. "I'm doing very well, thank you. How are you?"

"Fine. Good."

"CJ, are you alright?" Abbey asked with a frown.

With a deep exhale, she admitted, "You're a little intimidating."

Abbey laughed loudly, a noise that was something akin to a cackle. "I don't think anyone has ever told me that before. I'm sure I frighten the students, but never my colleagues!"

"Well, it's true."

"Full disclosure, CJ, I did want to have coffee to get to know you better because I think we could become good friends, but I did have an ulterior motive in asking you here today."

"Oh?"

Abbey could feel her cheeks gain a pink twinge. "Well, I know you know Jed Bartlet…"

"Sure. Professor Bartlet is great."

Now it was Abbey's turn to feel awkward and uncomfortable. "Is he…seeing anyone?"

CJ's brow furrowed. "Like a girlfriend?"

"Something like that."

"Oh god no. Professor Bartlet doesn't do anything but work. Events for the department or the college, teaching classes, holding office hours, working on research and writing with Charlie, things like that. I'm pretty close with a lot of his friends, so I think I would know if he dated anyone. Why, are you interested?"

This was the moment Abbey had been dreading ever since she even considered picking up the phone that morning. "I don't know," she lied. "I could be. I wanted to know more about him before I made any kind of commitment to my interest."

"That makes sense. But I don't know what I can tell you beyond saying that he's funny and the kindest, most compassionate professor I've ever had. He's brilliant and the students love him and he's really accomplished. I was lucky to have him as a professor, and now I'm lucky to have him as a friend," CJ said with a smile.

Abbey just nodded. That satisfied her curiosity for now. Or perhaps she was just too mortified to ask anything else about Jed Bartlet. She deftly changed the topic of conversation, and she and CJ had a lovely afternoon talking and laughing.

And while she did have a nice time with CJ, a part of Abbey's mind was whirling the whole time to create a plan of action with Jed Bartlet.


	3. Chapter 3

_Chapter Three_

CJ wandered through the halls of the third floor, trying desperately to find someone she wanted to talk to and praying she could avoid those she didn't want to see.

"Hey, CJ!"

She whiled around to find Will Bailey waving at her. "What?" she asked harshly.

He frowned. "Sorry, just saying hi. Everything okay?"

CJ gave a kind smile. "Fine. Just looking for Josh."

"He's teaching right now. His class gets out at five, I think," Will responded.

She checked her watch, noting that he should be back in about twenty minutes. "Okay, I'll probably just wait in his office." She turned to walk away but paused and slowly spun back to face Will. "Hey, by the way, do you know who Leo's dating?"

Will started sputtering. "I…well…"

"Oh my god, you do know! Tell me!" CJ replied excitedly, her eyes widening at the prospect of fun gossip.

"I'm not telling you that!" Will protested.

CJ furrowed her brow at him. "Fine. I'll ask Kate."

"She doesn't know."

"Well, she will soon, because your pregnant wife is going to be pissed to find out that you're keeping things from her," CJ threatened.

"Oh come on! Don't do that!" Will whined.

CJ shrugged. "You might teach National Security, but she was a Navy Commander before becoming head of campus security, so I think she might know more about enhanced interrogation than you."

Will sighed heavily. "I'm going to go work on writing essay topic and regret ever stepping out of my office today."

After he went back to his office, CJ smirked to herself as she headed down to Josh's office. A few minutes later, the man himself arrived. He was surprised to find his office occupied. "Hey. What's up?"

"I have an idea that I want your help with."

"Okay…" Josh replied warily.

CJ started off slowly. "We love Bartlet, right? And we want him to be happy?"

"Yeah…"

"Well, at the party the other night, he met Abbey Barrington, the head of the Biology department…"

Josh lit up. "That's right! You were there! Leo told us Bartlet has a little crush on her!"

"Really!? Oh this is so much better than I imagined. I met her, and she's wonderful, and I just came from having coffee with her, and you know what she asked me?" CJ said with excitement.

"What?"

"If Jed Bartlet is single."

Josh started laughing. "Oh this is too good. We gotta set them up somehow. I've never seen him with a woman, so I don't know if he'd do anything on his own."

CJ smiled. "I think she might make a move, but I don't want him to get scared off! I really do think they'd be good together. They're both really smart and funny and kind-hearted."

A thought popped into Josh's head and his face fell. "Wait…is this weird? I mean, we're basically trying to get our professor laid."

"No, we're trying to help our friend find love. Though it probably would be good for him to get some," she reasoned.

Josh stammered awkwardly, "Is he even…I mean, we've never seen him with a woman before. Is he even interested in women?"

"He was married before, right?" CJ asked with a small frown.

"Yeah, but plenty of closeted people get married. Especially back then." After another moment of silent contemplation, Josh reached across his desk for the phone. "I'm gonna call Donna."

For the second time that afternoon, CJ noted that her friends' wives were much more capable humans than they.

Donna's cell phone began to vibrate in her purse. She pulled it out and saw her husband's name flash. "Oh, it's Josh. Let me make sure it isn't anything important," she said before picking up the phone. "Hey, what's up?"

"Hey, is Bartlet gay, do you think? CJ and I weren't sure."

Donna turned to her companion. "Josh and CJ want to know if you're gay."

Jed snorted in surprise. "They what? Good god, what are they up to!?"

Josh overheard that through the phone. "Oh my god, he's there!? Donna!"

After regaining some semblance of composure, Jed said loudly, "Even though it is none of their business, nor should it make any difference, no, I am not gay. Though my nephew and his husband are. But whatever Josh and CJ are up to, they should quit it right now."

Donna went to relay the message but found the line dead. "I think they heard you," she said simply, putting the phone away. "Well, that was weird. Even for Josh."

Jed sighed. "Leo told Josh and Sam about the woman we met at Dean Fiderer's party the other night, and they won't seem to let it go. But there's no point to whatever they're trying. She's Charlie's girlfriend's mother, and that's a little weird, don't you think?"

Donna shrugged. "I don't know. If you like her and she likes you, I think you deserve a chance to see what happens."

"I don't know if I like her," Jed lied, trying to remain rational. "We only had two short conversations. She's a little odd."

"You're a little odd," Donna pointed out. "But tell me about her! I've never met her, and I have no idea what kind of women you like. Since we've now established that you are interested in women."

Jed chuckled. "You know, I was married once."

"I know! But you never talk about your wife."

He didn't reply. Jed just wandered aimlessly through the large, empty exhibition room of the campus museum with his hands in his pockets.

Donna stood in the middle of the room and squared her shoulders. "Alright, you have three options. You can tell me about this woman, or you can tell me about your wife, or you can give me _any_ idea of what to do with this space for my curation."

Jed turned to her, his eyes sparkling merrily. "Those are my only options?"

"Or you could leave right now, but then I'll be mad at you."

"Oh, we wouldn't want that!" Jed replied sarcastically. He laughed as Donna sighed at him in frustration. He put his arm around her shoulders and kissed her temple when she leaned into his embrace. "This room doesn't have great movement, so you'll want to create a flow with some benches and standing exhibits," he suggested.

Donna smiled. "Is that all you have to say?"

Jed paused a beat, glad that Donna was beside him and couldn't see his face fully. "She's short. Which is good for me, since I'm no giant like your husband."

"So she can wear heels and you'll still be taller?"

"Yes. And she's a brunette. She's got this dark hair and it's kinda fluffy or whatever you call it. It was styled or something for the party, but it looked very nice. And her eyes are green that sparkled gold when she laughed. It was a great laugh. Loud but full of sincerity."

"You made her laugh?" Donna asked encouragingly.

Jed couldn't believe he was almost blushing. "She was teasing me about my name. She's got a weird sense of humor. But in a room full of stuffy professors, it was a nice change. We didn't talk for long, but I don't know…she was unpredictable."

"That can be nice!"

"Yeah…" he trailed off, lost in thought.

"What's her name?" Donna asked.

"Abbey." The syllables fell though his lips with reverence. That red dress popped back into his mind. "She smelled like French perfume and some kind of flower," he blurted.

Donna's eyes went wide and she grinned excitedly. "So you're not sure if you like her?" she asked with a small giggle, failing at asking a casual question.

Jed blinked back to reality and nudged her playfully. "Alright, that's enough. You've got a husband to feed."

"Josh is a grown man, so if he can't get dinner for himself, he deserves to starve," Donna replied.

He laughed. "Quite right. I happen to enjoy cooking, but I haven't had anyone to make dinner for me in a very long time."

"You know you're always welcome with us," Donna insisted.

"You're a sweet girl, Donna. Now get home to Josh and make sure to mock him a little, for my sake.

"Hey, I'm his wife! I can only mock him when it's truly warranted. It was in our marriage vows," she joked.

When Donna got home that evening, she found Josh in the kitchen, staring at the oven. She frowned. "What are you doing?"

He jumped and turned to see her in the doorway. "Oh. Hey. I'm baking those biscuits you like. I didn't want them to burn."

Donna smiled, coming over to kiss her husband. "Thanks," she said softly. After a moment patted his shoulder. "Hey, what were you and CJ doing calling me about Bartlet today?"

"Oh, nothing. CJ got some idea to set him up with some woman they met at Fiderer's party," Josh replied, dismissing the idea before she could scold him for trying to interfere.

"I want in."

"Yeah?"

"Oh yeah."


	4. Chapter 4

_Chapter Four_

"Mom, the pot is boiling over."

Abbey jolted out of her reverie. "Damn! Thanks, Zo."

Zoey sat down at the kitchen table and watched her mother. "Are you okay? You've been kinda out of it lately."

"Oh, I'm fine. I've just been thinking a lot."

"About what?"

Abbey smiled sadly. "A lot of things."

Something told Zoey that now as the right time to get some answers. "Hey, Mom?"

"Yeah?"

"Why did you and Dad get divorced?"

Abbey turned to face her, surprised at the question. Zoey had never really asked about her father. He'd been gone for almost twenty years. Abbey hardly ever thought about him. But she had recently. Zoey's timing was a very strange coincidence. "He wasn't very nice to me," she finally replied.

Zoey frowned. "If he wasn't nice, why did you marry him?"

"He loved me. And he was very good to me," Abbey said with a slight shrug. But her tone turned cold. "Until he wasn't."

"Mom, did he hurt you?" she asked, almost afraid to hear her mother's answer.

"No, sweetheart. He never hit me. Or you. Thank god," Abbey assured her. "But he did get very jealous and controlling. He didn't want me to go back to work after you were born. He didn't trust me. He would get very upset and yell. And when I told him to knock it off, he shut down."

"So that's why he didn't want me?"

Abbey reached out to stroke her baby girl's cheek. "It wasn't that he didn't want you. He didn't want me. And in his mind, seeing you was seeing me. And he ended up hating me so much for being my own person that he couldn't even see what a wonderful person you are."

Zoey hugged her mother. "I'm sorry," she said, her voice muffled against Abbey's shoulder.

"Why are you sorry? You have nothing to be sorry for. Not for this."

"Yeah, but I'm sorry you had to go through all of that. You don't deserve that. You're great!"

Abbey kissed her forehead. "You're great too."

"I know," Zoey replied with a big smile.

Abbey chuckled. "Alright, enough of this. Let's have dinner."

As soon as they finished eating and clearing the dishes, Zoey rushed upstairs to call Charlie.

"Hey!" he answered happily. "So, did you ask her?"

"No, I didn't get to that. It would have been too much," she replied.

"Zoey, you said you were going to talk to her today!"

"I know, but I did ask her about my dad."

Charlie frowned. "You did? How…how was that?" he asked awkwardly.

"Better than I expected. I've never really asked about him before. I barely remember him, so I don't miss him. And Mom's given me everything I could ever need and more. So he's never really been an issue in my life."

"So what did you mom say about him?" Charlie prompted.

"Well, we don't have to worry about her having any lingering feelings. She's super done with him. He was never violent, apparently, but he got really jealous and controlling and mean after I was born because Mom went back to work, so she basically left him. And he ended up hating her, which is why he's never come around. Which sounds pretty good to me," Zoey replied.

"That's good, then! We don't have to worry about anyone else, I guess. Right?" Suddenly Charlie realized that his girlfriend might have some kind of Parent Trap fantasy hidden somewhere in her mind.

"Honestly, I'd be happy to never think or hear about my father ever again. He doesn't matter to me, and now we know he doesn't matter to Mom either."

"But we still don't know how to proceed, because you were supposed to bring it up to her today, Zoey!" Charlie reminded her.

"I know! But like I said, I couldn't bring it up because that would be too much. I couldn't ask her if my father abused us and then turn around and change the subject to ask about her dating habits!"

Charlie sighed. "Sorry. I won't push anymore."

"No, it's my fault. But I'm right there with you. Now that I've met Professor Bartlet, I totally agree with what you said the first time you met my mom: they'd be a great couple." Zoey smiled to herself, picturing how the two of them had looked together at Dean Fiderer's party. She'd seen her mother flirt before, but there was something about the way she looked at Professor Bartlet that made her immediately intrigued by Charlie's idea to set them up.

"I don't want to start things on my end until we know where your mom is at. Do you know if she's the type to make the first move or if she'd want him to call her or…"

"Charlie!" Zoey interrupted. "I have no idea how my mom dates. I'm sure she has dated during my lifetime, but I honestly have no memory of it. She never really told me anything."

"But could you…"

"I am going to hang up on you if you don't stop," she interjected sternly.

"Fine, I'm sorry," Charlie grumbled.

Zoey happily continued chatting with her boyfriend about their upcoming plans. But while he was talking, she couldn't help but be a little worried about how to bring up this topic with her mother.

But Zoey's worries were unnecessary; the work was done for her. While they were working in the lab together the following day, Abbey brought up the subject on her own accord.

"You heard from Charlie lately?"

"Yeah, we talked last night after dinner. We're going to the movies tonight."

"That will be nice. Has Charlie mentioned anything about his Econ professor?" Abbey asked casually, not turning her face away from the slides she was examining under the microscope.

"What do you mean?" Zoey did her best not to appear eager.

"Well, I enjoyed meeting Professor Bartlet. So I was just wondering how he was doing."

Zoey could have squealed. But she wouldn't push just now. She'd report back to Charlie and they'd plan what to do next. "I'm sure Professor Bartlet is doing fine. I would have heard if he weren't."

Abbey nodded and didn't respond. First she'd concocted a reason to have coffee with CJ Cregg to ask about Jed Bartlet, and now she was fishing for information from her daughter. This was stupid. Abbey couldn't recall when she'd last acted so desperate. But she also couldn't recall any time in her life when just seeing a man laugh had made her breathless. Looking into his blue eyes had almost made her go weak at the knees, and when he'd called her Zoey's 'lovely mother,' she'd nearly blushed. When had that ever happened Abbey Barrington? And a feeling like that wasn't something she took lightly. So she wouldn't let this opportunity slip away.

Later that night, Abbey found herself restless and frustrated. Ever since she'd let herself think about Jed Bartlet that afternoon, she hadn't been able to focus on anything else. Her mind would wander to him every time she tried to read anything—a book, a student essay, or even a magazine. There was nothing good on TV. Zoey was out with Charlie, so she didn't even have her daughter to distract her. Finally, Abbey changed into a cocktail dress and put on some makeup and drove over to the one place that never failed to lift her spirits.

She parked in front of the formal restaurant and smiled to herself. She hadn't been here since her birthday. In fact, she only ever came her for her birthday. But this would be good. Waiters and bartenders in tuxedos were always good. Being here was like stepping back in time to an idealized version of mid-century glamour.

"Professor! It isn't your birthday, is it?" the hostess asked with a bright smile.

"No, I'm afraid I was just in the mood to come in for a little while. Is there anything available?" Abbey asked politely, realizing that showing up here without a reservation was probably rather stupid.

"I'm afraid we don't have any tables, but you're welcome to sit at the bar. We can serve our whole menu to you."

Abbey smiled. "I'm sure I don't need the _whole_ menu, but the bar will be fine, thank you." When the hostess moved to lead her, just as the phone rang, Abbey stopped her. "Oh I know where it is. You take care of this."

Feeling a thousand times better already, Abbey made her way around the tables and booths to the back of the restaurant to sit at the enormous marble and dark wood bar. But before she got there, she noticed a familiar face at one of the tables. "Professor McGarry?"

Leo was startled to hear his name. But he smiled when he saw Abbey. "Professor Barrington! What a nice surprise!" He stood up to greet her. "Are you here alone?"

"I'm afraid I am. My daughter is out with her boyfriend, and I was in the mood for a little elegance. This is my favorite place in the whole city, though I don't make it over here as often as I'd like," she admitted. It took her a moment before noticing Leo's somewhat surprising dinner companion. "Oh, I'm so sorry. I'm Abbey Barrington. I teach Biology at the University," she said in introduction.

A very small blonde woman stood up and shook Abbey's hand. "Annabeth Schott. I actually teach in the Communications department," she replied with a smile as bright as the sunshine and a tone of voice to match.

"It's so nice to meet you. I'll leave you to your dinner. I'm going to the bar. It was nice to see you both," Abbey said to the pair before hastily leaving.

Leo was visibly shaken as he sat back down with Annabeth. "Do you need a minute?" she asked him with kind understanding.

He glanced over to the bar where Abbey had just sat down. "Actually, yeah." He turned back to Annabeth. "I promise this has nothing to do with you or our night together. But that woman…"

Annabeth sat and waited for him to continue, her brows raised in anticipation.

"I just met her recently, and she's very important," Leo finished cryptically.

Annabeth nodded. "Go. I'll still be here when you get back," she promised.

Leo got up and did up the button on his suit jacket as he approached the bar. The bartender immediately asked him if he needed something. "No, I'm here to talk to her," he told the bartender as he gestured at Abbey.

"Something I can do for you?" she asked with a small smile.

"Can I call you Abbey?"

"I'd prefer if you did. Is that all you wanted?"

"No, sorry. Listen, Abbey, could you not tell anyone on campus about seeing me here with Annabeth?"

Abbey frowned. "Are you married? Is she married?"

"No, nothing like that, I swear."

"Alright, then I suppose whatever is going on is your business. I wouldn't have told anyone anything anyway," she added with a slight shrug. "I don't have many on-campus friends I'd bother gossiping with."

"It's just that she's a new teacher. And we kinda clicked right away. But I sorta ignored her for a long time. I mean, my god, she's a good ten years younger than I am. She had to convince me to go out with her. And I really like her. I just don't want to ruin it with the rumor mill," Leo explained. He couldn't believe he was confiding in a woman who was only slightly more than a stranger.

Abbey nodded. "I understand. Your secret is safe with me."

Leo thanked her and left. Abbey watched him take his cellphone out and dial as he ducked around the corner to the hallway where the restrooms were located. A moment later, he walked out and put his phone back in his pocket. Abbey was grateful for the mysterious interruption. It took her mind off of other, less productive things. She shook her head and went back to looking at the bar menu.


	5. Chapter 5

_Chapter Five_

Abbey chatted with the bartender and waitresses while she ate her outlandishly formal dinner at the bar. She paid no mind to Professor McGarry and his date. She'd almost put them completely out of her mind when the most unexpected thing happened about half an hour into her meal.

"Is this seat taken?"

She turned to see Jed Bartlet standing beside her with a twinkle in his blue eyes. Her breath caught in her throat. After a subtle deep breath, Abbey smiled and said, "What a surprise! Please sit!"

"I don't want to bother you, but since we're both here, it seems silly to sit across the bar and ignore each other," Jed pointed out.

"Do you come here often?" Abbey quickly added, "Because I don't, but I love it here."

"I've been here once or twice, but always to celebrate something for someone else."

"Yes, it's not really the place a person would come to otherwise," Abbey agreed.

"So what are you doing here?" he asked, after ordering a glass of scotch from the bartender.

Abbey sighed, "Oh, I was just a little lonely. Zoey is out with Charlie tonight, and I felt a little stir-crazy at home. So I impulsively decided to come here. It's off the beaten path and you usually don't see many people from the university here. But obviously that doesn't hold for tonight. What brings you here?"

"I got a call to come pick up a friend of mine after he'd had a little too much to drink," Jed explained. "But he isn't here, so I guess he forgot he called me and got a cab instead. It wouldn't be the first time."

Abbey turned on the barstool to look at the tables behind her. Professor McGarry and his dinner companion were nowhere to be seen. Strange.

Jed did his best to focus on his gaze on the ice cube in his glass. Now that he was sitting beside Abbey after a few days of thinking about their brief meeting, he was frankly a little overwhelmed by her presence. She was just as beautiful as he remembered. Her dress was a very dark purple, almost black. It showed off more of her legs than the red dress at the party, though he only got a glimpse of them as he walked over to the bar to join her. Her hair was down now, looking very soft and framing her face quite nicely. And those eyes were just as bright as they were in his memory.

Abbey glanced over at him, nursing his drink. "Would you like to get something to eat? They serve the full menu at the bar," she informed him.

"I could eat, yeah," Jed replied with a small smile.

Their eyes met for a fraction of a second. Or perhaps it was longer. Abbey couldn't tell. Everything moved around them. And the world was frozen. Her heart stopped and raced. Something like that. She swallowed hard and blinked, ending the moment.

Jed began to look at the menu, doing his best to remember how to breathe because his body didn't seem to know how.

All of a sudden, Abbey began to chuckle. "I love this song," she said softly.

It took a moment for Jed to train his ear on the jazz trio playing in the far corner of the restaurant. It was an old jazz standard, Strangers in the Night. He began to hum along a little, slightly off key, mumbling some lyrics.

Abbey felt a warm tingle fill her body as she sang softly, laughing as he fumbled over the words and just made something up.

Jed laughed with her. "You a Sinatra fan?"

"Oh yeah. I love all those guys. I used to listen to those records when I was a kid."

"Me too. Frank was always my favorite."

"Well, of course. He's the Chairman of the Board," Abbey said pointedly.

"Very true," Jed replied, his eyes shining.

The conversation flowed easily from there. They started with music—the old standards they both enjoyed, the classical composers they liked the most, the songs on the radio that annoyed them.

"Charlie played a song for me recently that, I swear to God, had the same melodic progression as a Bob Dylan song."

Abbey laughed. "Well, Dylan's musical compositions were never too complex, but I know exactly what song you're talking about! Zoey's played it at the house a few times, and I had the same thought!"

"Makes sense that Charlie and Zoey would be listening to the same music," Jed noted.

"And it looks like you and I have similar taste as well," she replied with a shy smile.

"Do you play any instruments?" he asked.

"I took piano lessons as a kid, but nothing serious. And I like to sing a little. You?"

"Nah, I'm a little tone deaf. I love music, but I've never had a knack for it, unfortunately."

Abbey smiled kindly. "Well, there's nothing wrong with enjoying it all the same." She paused as she ate the last few bites of her dinner. It had gotten cold due to being neglected while they'd been talking. Abbey found it to be a very worthwhile trade-off. "By the way, I meant to ask you about the work you do with Charlie. I've asked him, but he never explains it in a way I can understand."

Jed chuckled. "Yeah, I've tried to have him help out in my intro classes, but he's not the greatest teacher yet. He'll get there, but it'll take some time. But essentially what we're working on is a book about the economics of developing nations."

"See, that made complete sense. Charlie kept going on about some number and a computer program and he just lost me."

"That's how we're getting the data. Charlie and I come up with a set of facts for an economic situation, then Charlie runs it through the computer to get a model of that economy that we can tweak and extrapolate over time. He summarizes the data and I take it from there," Jed explained.

"And what have you found so far?"

Jed laughed, "Now, that would be too complicated for you. I wouldn't know where to start."

Abbey balked at his tone. "Zoey and I spend our time mixing hydrocarbons and creating life on microscope slides, so why don't you try me?"

"Oh no, I didn't…" Jed was taken aback by her cold tone. He certainly meant no offense. Though perhaps he had been a little patronizing.

"You didn't mean to talk to me like I'm just a woman and not a world-renowned scientist?"

"No, you said you hadn't understood when Charlie talked about it."

"And I asked you to explain it, not to dismiss me."

"Well, here, let me…"

"Maybe another time," Abbey said bitterly, cutting him off. "When you can work up some diagrams to explain things better.

Jed was at a slight loss. Things were going so well. At least he thought so. And now he'd upset her.

Abbey wiped her mouth on her napkin and stood up. "I'm going to use the restroom, and when I get back, why don't we find another subject?" she suggested, smiling in a way that would hopefully dispel the negative tension between them.

Jed nodded and watched her walk away. He felt slightly ill in the pit of his stomach. She was smart and funny and stunningly beautiful, and he had made her unhappy. He felt as though he'd let her down somehow, like he'd disappointed her in some way.

He couldn't face her again, that much he knew. He wanted to apologize but he wasn't sure how. All Jed Bartlet knew was that he couldn't deal with it here and now. He called the bartender over and handed his credit card to pay. As soon as he signed the receipt, he escaped out of the restaurant.

Abbey stared at herself in the bathroom mirror. The lighting was unbelievable, so she took a moment to fluff her hair a little bit and make sure none of her makeup was running. But after those little touches, she just couldn't look away from her own face. She looked…different. Abbey had to remind herself to relax her forehead, causing the stern furrowing of her brow to go away. Her eyes were brighter than she remembered. The green and gold seemed to shine more. The corners of her lips twitched before she allowed herself to fully smile. Until that slight disagreement, she had been so comfortable with Jed Bartlet. Comfortable and so very happy. So, so very happy.

With a determined nod at herself, Abbey decided to put all of the unpleasantness out of her mind and go back to enjoying this impromptu pseudo-date with Jed. She would apologize for being so snippy with him. She never had been good at keeping her mouth shut.

But when Abbey came back out to the bar, it was empty. "Excuse me, did you see where he went?" she asked the bartender, pointed to Jed's seat.

"He paid and left."

"Oh." Abbey sat down in front of her watered-down, melted drink. Her almost-empty dinner plate had been cleared already. "I suppose I'll take my check then," she said resignedly.

"He paid for both meals," the bartender replied simply.

Abbey allowed herself to let that bubble of warmth overtake her conflicted thoughts. Yes, he'd abandoned her, but he'd been gentleman enough to pay for her dinner. Which he certainly didn't have to do, but had done anyway out of manners or guilt or probably both.

She thanked the staff of the restaurant for a lovely evening in their establishment and got back in her car to drive home. The radio was ignored the entire way. Her mind was swirling. On the one hand, they'd had a perfectly lovely time. On the other hand, he'd been patronizing and awkward and mildly offensive. But perhaps he'd misspoken or had simply meant to convey levity. She'd probably overreacted. But she'd tried to put it behind them. She was going to apologize and forgive him. She hadn't gotten to do that because he'd left. Though he had paid for dinner.

Abbey was so distracted that she didn't even notice the lights on in her house when she arrived.

"Mom! Where have you been!?"

She was somewhat surprised to see Charlie and Zoey in the living room, both looking very worried. "I went out to dinner."

"And you don't answer your phone?"

Abbey fished her cell phone out of her purse to find three missed calls from Zoey and half a dozen text messages asking where she was with varying degrees of urgency. "Sorry, I didn't check it."

"We got home and you weren't here! I didn't know you were going out, and when you didn't answer, I got worried. We were about to call the cops!"

"Zoey, calm down. I'm the mother around here," Abbey snapped. She walked past them and into her bedroom. That dress had suddenly become uncomfortably tight.

Charlie and Zoey exchanged concerned looks. "I'll call you tomorrow," Charlie said, giving her a quick kiss. He grabbed his keys and left.

Zoey went back into the bedroom to check on her mother. "Mom? Is everything okay?"

Abbey gave her a soft smile. "It will be," she replied simply. "Here, unzip my dress, would you?"

"Did something happen at dinner?" Zoey asked, helping undo her mother's dress.

"Yes," Abbey told her. "But we don't need to talk about it now. I'm tired."

Zoey took the hint. "Okay. You need anything before bed?"

Abbey kissed her cheek and gave her a squeeze. "No, sweetheart, I'm fine. Really."

As she lay in bed, staring at the dark ceiling, Abbey replayed the evening with Jed Bartlet in her mind, trying desperately to forget the unpleasant end part. She smiled to herself until she thought about how he'd left her. He'd been rude and then he'd just left. No explanation, nothing. Just gone.

Abbey rolled over, shutting her eyes tight. Maybe things would look better in the morning.


	6. Chapter 6

_Chapter Six_

CJ Cregg nearly spit her coffee out from laughing.

"I told him _not_ to drown the specimen, but I guess he misheard me!" Abbey laughed, finishing her story. She could tell horror stories about student disasters in the biology lab all day. It was fun to find someone who hadn't heard them all and appreciated them as well. "My, I do enjoy spending time with non-science people."

"I've got a bunch of people in the social sciences that you'd love. And they'd get a real kick out of you, too. The only science person most of us know is Margaret Hooper."

"Oh, in Physics?"

"That's the one. She used to be Professor McGarry's research assistant. But then she decided she'd had enough of political science and wanted to do something else."

Abbey chuckled. "She went from politics to Newtonian Physics? I gotta talk to Margaret more."

"Well, the rest of us in the soft sciences are a load of fun."

"I enjoyed those of you I've met," Abbey responded.

An idea struck CJ's mind. She allowed the conversation to continue uninterrupted, but her thoughts were elsewhere.

As soon as she and Abbey parted ways, CJ rushed to Josh's office. She entered without knocking.

"Jeez! You can't keep barging in places! You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Suck it up, Joshua," she told him, rolling her eyes.

"You're almost as bad as Donna," he grumbled.

CJ closed the door behind her and sat down in front of his desk. "Never mind that. I've figured it out."

"Figured what out?"

"God, you're so dense sometimes. Whoever decided to let you teach undergrads must be high," she complained before launching into a description of her scheme. "Bartlet. We talked about ways to put him with Abbey Barrington, right?"

"Yeah…" Josh replied warily.

"Well, Abbey just told me that she likes me because I'm not in the hard sciences. So I was thinking that I should suggest she spend more time with our people."

"Okay…" He still didn't the point.

"So, why don't we throw a little something and invite Abbey under the pretense of meeting more of my friends, and she and Jed can be put in the same room? That way, we can decide if they really should be together. Or at least something will happen," she said with feigned confidence.

Josh considered this for a moment, his mind going almost comically blank. "Yeah, I think that would be good. Yeah. Let's do that. What excuse do we use?"

"And that, Professor Lyman, is why I've come to you. You and Donna have any milestones coming up?"

He frowned. "Um. I have no idea."

CJ could have strangled him. "Call Donna. Put her on speaker. But make sure she isn't with Bartlet before you start talking this time!"

Josh did as he was told, figuring that arguing would be useless. "Hey, Donna, are you alone?"

Her voice came in a low whisper. "Josh, I told you, I'm not going to do that again! Not at school!"

CJ began cackling loudly. "Oh my god, you guys!"

Donna could feel her cheeks turn bright red as she quickly walked through the halls of the Arts building. "Oh. Hi, CJ."

"Do you and Josh have anything to celebrate anytime soon?" CJ asked, catching her breath.

"The anniversary of when we met is in a couple days. We don't usually celebrate that with anything special though," Donna replied, curious as to what this would lead to.

"Oh is that this week? Wait, I thought we met in the spring?" Josh interrupted.

"No, it was September. But it was really warm that year."

"Right, yeah."

CJ waited for a pause in their marital banter. "Okay, so the anniversary of when you met? How about celebrating that with a dinner party this year?"

Josh gave CJ a confused look. "We don't host dinner parties."

Donna jumped on the idea. "No, Josh, we don't, but we definitely should. I'm a great cook, despite your jokes about needing a fire extinguisher in the kitchen. CJ, what do you have in mind?"

CJ explained her idea of inviting Abbey to an event with a lot of social science and humanities people, which would obviously include Bartlet, and being able to set them up in a less obvious way to see if they really did get along.

Donna was thrilled with the idea. Even Josh admitted it was a pretty good plan. Though he did continue to mope about being forced to host a dinner party.

It didn't take Donna more than about fifteen minutes to plan the evening and begin calling people to invite.

"So in an effort to remind Josh of our great love story, we're going to celebrate the anniversary of when we met. Will you come?" she asked, pleased with her cover story.

Jed frowned as he responded, "You want to celebrate your anniversary with me?"

"No, we're having a dinner party. We're inviting all our friends."

"In that case, of course I'll come. Can I bring anything?" he asked pleasantly.

"Just yourself," Donna answered him. They said their goodbyes, and as soon as she hung up, she called CJ. "Okay, he's coming."

"Perfect. Abbey is excited to meet all our people. I already told Toby he's coming."

"Did he complain?"

"Of course. But he'll come. He loves you guys. Though I didn't tell him about our plan for Bartlet. He wouldn't approve."

"Well that's okay. He can just be along for the ride with everyone else. Sam is coming with a date. I have no idea who he's bringing. Will and Kate are confirmed. Leo can't come though. He just said he has other plans on Saturday. I think he just doesn't want to introduce us to his new girl yet. You know how he can be," Donna told her.

CJ nodded to herself. "Very true. Hopefully we meet this one soon. It's been a couple weeks, right? They don't usually last this long. The ones we get to meet, anyway. But this isn't about Leo. This is about Bartlet and Abbey."

"And me and Josh," Donna added.

"Why is it about you two?" CJ asked, confused.

Donna paused a beat. "It's our anniversary, CJ. That's why we're having the dinner party."

"Oh is it actually your anniversary? I thought you made that up."

"CJ! You're as bad as Josh!" Donna whined.

"Right, sorry. Well, we'll all celebrate you guys and our matchmaking plan on Saturday."

Donna sighed, "Alright, see you then. And I swear, it really is the anniversary of when Josh and I met! It was…"

"Donna, I'm gonna cut you off right there, because I have grading to do and I feel like you'll tell us all the story on Saturday anyway," CJ interjected.

"Fine," she pouted.

When Saturday arrived, Donna was running around the house, trying to cook a nice meal for ten people. Will and Kate should have already arrived. CJ said Toby was grumbling about the event more than usual. Josh was too preoccupied with matchmaking Bartlet to be any help to Donna. Sam still hadn't told them who he was bringing for his date. All in all, Donna was becoming quite confident that this was starting to be more trouble than it was worth.

But her mind wandered back to earlier that day when Bartlet had called, asking what she was serving for dinner so he could be sure to bring a wine that would pair well. He was the kindest, warmest man. Brilliant and strong and larger than life at times. Donna was lucky enough to have a very close relationship with him, but she knew every single one of their friends also looked to him as something of a father figure. He deserved, more than anyone else she knew, to have someone to love who loved him in return. Maybe Abbey Barrington would turn out to be the one.

"Donna, am I supposed to find music to play during this thing?" Josh shouted from the living room.

She frowned, silently cursing herself for not having thought of this earlier. "If you could, that would be nice!" she called back.

Josh looked at their collection of CDs and when nothing jumped out in thirty seconds, he went into the kitchen. "I don't know what to pick. Can I do something in here while you choose?" he asked sheepishly.

"Keep stirring the sauce. I don't want it to burn," she instructed.

A moment later, the doorbell rang. Donna answered it on her way to choose music, trying to mentally picture their collection as she did so, in an effort to save time.

"Hey, you guys!" Donna greeted brightly.

Kate Harper-Bailey walked in immediately. "Alright, I brought a casserole that I made from Will's mom's recipe so I don't know how good it is but it will serve ten people as an appetizer. What else can I do?" she asked briskly.

Will followed her inside, though he greeted Donna first. "We're happy to help. Should I distract Josh from ruining things?" he offered wisely.

Donna considered a moment. "Actually, Will, you cook, right?"

"Yes, he cooks," Kate answered. "If he hadn't been grading pop quizzes, he would have made the casserole."

"And I would have made it better," Will added.

"Okay, so Kate, why don't you and Josh argue about something like I know you want to, and Will and I can finish up everything in the kitchen."

Josh was ushered out of the way and into the living room to find Kate staring at the CD collection.

"There should be background music. Something soft and instrumental," she said, preempting any question he would have.

"Sure. Hi. You look nice," Josh said awkwardly.

Kate turned, her eyes strangely wide. "Oh. Greetings. Hello, Josh. Happy anniversary. Your home looks lovely," she replied with the rote pleasantries she knew were expected in the situation.

"You can stop trying so hard, Commander Harper. You've been here a million times," Josh said with a smile, trying to put her at ease.

After Kate chose a medley of violin concertos, she and Josh sat on the sofa, chatting about the new security improvements Kate was working on at the university. Josh challenged her at every turn, ensuring that no corners had been cut and there wasn't anything better that could be done.

Jed arrived next, exactly on time. CJ and Toby were right behind him with Abbey. CJ hadn't wanted Abbey to feel awkward about arriving alone to a party where she didn't know anyone. Or at least where she didn't know she knew anyone. She and Toby had picked her up.

"Abbey!" Jed exclaimed in surprise.

"Jed!" Her eyes were wide and her heart skipped a beat.

"Oh that's right, I forgot that you two had met," CJ lied. "Well, you know Bartlet and me and Toby, so let me introduce Donna and Josh Lyman, the happy anniversary couple. Josh teaches Domestic Policy in the Political Science Department. Donna teaches Impressionism over in Art History."

Abbey greeted the Lymans politely, thanking them for the gracious invitation, trying desperately to appear as though she knew anything that was coming out of her mouth. Jed was _not_ supposed to be here. She'd asked CJ specifically when she had been invited. Though CJ had said that she didn't know who all would be coming.

"Hi, I'm Will Bailey. I'm in Poli Sci with Josh. And this is my wife, Kate. She runs campus security." Will saw the terrified look in Abbey's eyes and recognized it well. He did his best to appear friendly and accommodating. Until he accidentally stepped on her shoe.

The doorbell rang while the introductions went around. Josh went to answer it and found Sam on the other side. "Hey, buddy!" Sam greeted. "Happy anniversary!" He gave his friend a quick hug before going inside. His date followed him in.

"Oh. Hi, Ainsley," Josh greeted begrudgingly.

"Hello to you, too, Josh. Though you could pretend like you're happy to see me," Ainsley replied.

"I didn't know Sam was bringing you," Josh said in a low tone.

Ainsley whispered back, "Neither did I until this afternoon. I don't think he could get another date. But at least I know all of you, so it won't be too awkward."

"Well, if that changes, we'll all know from your grammar."

Ice-blue eyes glared at him in response.

Donna pulled Sam to the side. "Sam! This is my anniversary, and now you guys are gonna fight, and it's going to be really uncomfortable for the rest of us."

"I couldn't get anyone else! Mallory is out of town and Laurie won't return my calls. Besides, you guys love Ainsley," he pointed out.

"We love her a lot. And you do too. But you two always seem to ruin everything. This is not the occasion for a reconciliation," she scolded.

Sam tried to apologize, but Donna just walked away from him and back to the group.

"If you all would like to follow me into the dining room, we can all sit down and start with drinks and appetizers!" Donna announced. She led everyone to the table and instructed where they should all sit. "Alright, Josh is at the head over there. Toby, you there on the left, then CJ. Kate, you're on Josh's right, next to Will. Then let's have Abbey next to CJ. Um…Ainsley, why don't you sit next to Will, and Sam here next to me." She turned to Jed, "And you get to be on my other side."

"A lovely place to be," he replied sweetly.

But upon taking his seat, Jed found himself directly next to the one person he'd wanted to avoid: Abbey.


	7. Chapter 7

_Chapter Seven_

Josh went around the table, pouring champagne for everyone for the toast. Kate had to remind him that she couldn't drink, being five months pregnant. They all took their seats and Josh raised his glass. "I'm sure Donna wants to tell the story, but I just wanted to thank you guys for coming to celebrate the anniversary of when we met. And I'll be honest, I had no idea nine years ago that I'd end up married to that blonde who spilled her drink all over my date to that gallery opening."

Everyone laughed and Donna interrupted, "What Josh means is that he loves me and we're happy you're all here."

Josh grinned his signature charming, dimpled smile. "I do love you. Happy anniversary, Donna."

She blew a kiss to him across the table. Everyone raised their glasses to Josh and Donna. And then everyone broke into side conversations. Donna turned to speak to Sam. CJ addressed Ainsley across from her. Will was making sure his pregnant wife was alright. Toby was asking Josh something about a student they had in common. The only people left quiet were Jed and Abbey.

Jed drank his champagne quietly, watching the happy people around him. Abbey just watched him, marveling at his calm façade. Though perhaps he could be calm. Clearly, he didn't feel the same way she did.

She was about to open her mouth and say something to him but he spoke first. "I didn't know you'd be here," he said softly, almost out of the side of his mouth.

"I didn't know you'd be here either. Though I suppose you wouldn't have come if you knew I'd be here," she replied bitterly.

He frowned. "I would think the opposite. I wouldn't think you'd want to be around me."

Abbey's fell open in slight surprise. She recovered and furrowed her brow. "You're the one who left."

"You wanted me to," he replied calmly.

"No, actually, I didn't," she admitted in a small voice.

Jed stood up from the table without a word. He gave Donna a friendly pat on the shoulder as he walked past her.

Abbey was stunned. This time he left right in front of her face. Didn't even wait for her to turn away before he escaped her presence. Well, she wouldn't have any more of that. She leaned across Jed's empty chair. "Donna, excuse me, where's your bathroom?"

"Oh, it's right down the hall there, just off the entryway," Donna told her with a bright smile.

Excusing herself, Abbey went to wait outside the bathroom door to corner Jed alone. But the bathroom was free. Perhaps he'd used a different bathroom. He probably knew his way around this house. She was about to search for him before she noticed movement through the stained-glass window in the front door. She crossed the foyer and opened the door, which was left ajar.

Standing on the porch was Jed, smoking a cigarette. He didn't notice the front door open. Abbey leaned against the doorjamb for a moment, watching him. He looked simultaneously on edge and perfectly comfortable. It was very clear that he smoked for stress relief.

"Those'll kill you, you know."

He whipped around, startled. "I don't smoke too often."

"How often is 'not too often?'"

"Just when I'm particularly bothered by something."

She smirked. "I take it that I am particularly bothersome? Or is that presumptuous of me?"

Jed regarded her carefully. He took one last long drag before dropping the cigarette and smashing it under his shoe. He exhaled the smoke away from her with a sort of sigh. "Every time I see you, I do something to upset you."

"So?"

"So, I don't want to upset you."

Abbey tried not to smile, but her nose wrinkled anyway. "You don't?"

"No. I don't," he replied, quite seriously.

"Well if you'd stand still for long enough, you'd know that you don't upset me. Actually, you leaving is a little upsetting. At the restaurant the other night, I went to the bathroom to clear my head. I was going to come out and apologize for snapping at you like that. I know you didn't mean any harm and I was overreacting."

"Oh." Jed didn't know what else to say. He kept his gaze focused on the wooden porch step beneath his feet.

"We should get back in the dining room. I told Donna I had to use the bathroom. And I actually would like to."

"It's just on the left there," Jed said, pointing inside.

"I know, thank you," she replied with a soft smile.

Jed let her go inside first, holding the door for her. He closed and locked it behind them. "I'll see you in there."

Abbey nodded and went into the bathroom. She fixed her hair in the mirror and made sure her makeup still looked alright. She sighed. Every time she saw Jed Bartlet, she turned into a complete idiot. She felt like she was always saying too much, always overthinking everything before and after they were together, planning every little word she wanted to say and then reviewing everything that had come out of her mouth. Thank god she hadn't told him that. She almost had, but she had thankfully had the good sense to shut up before she went too far. Because how could she tell him that she had been in a depressed funk for days after their failed dinner together? Or that she'd been wandering campus near the social science buildings on the off chance she'd run into him? Or that she'd picked up the phone three separate times to call CJ to ask about him and had stopped herself from asking Charlie every time she'd seen him?

Abbey knew she was being ridiculous. She knew that, rationally. And yet here she was, a grown woman obsessing over a man like a schoolgirl with a crush. Strangely, she didn't entirely mind it. Every moment she'd spent with Jed Bartlet had made her happy in some small way. There was nothing wrong with wanting more of that.

She left the bathroom and went back to the dinner table. Jed was in conversation with Donna and Sam about something. They seemed to be having a good time. His bright smile was contagious.

CJ watched Abbey, noticing how she and Bartlet had both been gone for a little while. Hopefully that was a good sign. Regardless of what had happened, Abbey's whole face had lit up when she looked at him. That had to be good.

"Abbey, we didn't get a chance to meet earlier. I'm Ainsley Hayes. I teach Philosophy," Ainsley said kindly in her pleasant Southern accent.

"It's so nice to meet you," Abbey replied. "I'm sure they've told you that I'm the head of the Biology Department. CJ and I met a few weeks ago and has very nicely introduced me to a lot of her friends. Science people can be so boring."

Ainsley laughed. "I'm always glad when this group expands. It's nice to add new people to the mix. Though if you keep up with Sam, you'll meet a lot of new people," she commented with a pointed glare at the man sitting beside her. He didn't seem to notice.

CJ joined in and explained, "Sam and Ainsley have been on and off for about three years now. He likes to date around."

"And I like to be treated with respect," Ainsley added.

Abbey regarded Sam curiously, who was deep in conversation with Jed. "Interesting," she said warily.

Ainsley sighed and admitted in a resigned tone, "He's brilliant and very sweet when he tries, and he has great hair."

"Great hair is very important. I can certainly appreciate that," Abbey agreed. She glanced over at Jed's head of thick hair and thought, not for the first time, about tangling her fingers in it.

CJ glanced at Toby beside her. "Yeah. Hair."

Toby overheard and turned to her. "Excuse me?"

The women all started to laugh. CJ gave him a small hug in consolation, which seemed to make him feel better. He went back to arguing with Will about whatever they'd been discussing.

Sam had turned to speak to Ainsley and Donna got up to serve dinner. Jed took the break in conversation to murmur to Abbey, "Having fun?"

"Yes, thank you. Your friends are all very charming."

He nodded. "They're a good bunch."

"By the way, I wanted to thank you for taking care of my bill at the restaurant that night. I didn't get a chance to mention it before. It was very nice of you."

"It was the least I could do."

"That's true."

Jed saw the mirth in her eyes and the playful smile on her lips and chuckled. "You had your hair down that night, but it was different than now," he noticed.

"Well, it's actually clean tonight. I wasn't expecting to see anyone that night," she explained.

"It's very pretty either way."

Before Abbey could thank him for the compliment, Donna came around to everyone to serve the entrée. So she just allowed the warm feeling to bubble within her as she sat and smiled.


	8. Chapter 8

_Chapter 8_

Abbey woke up late on Sunday. She hadn't set her alarm. The sun coming through the shutters on her bedroom was a perfect way to drift into the day. She rolled over onto her back and blinked her eyes open. She smiled. She still had butterflies.

Her mind drifted back to dinner the night before. Everyone was very nice to her, and she knew she'd made a few new friends. CJ was incredibly kind to invite her, as were Josh and Donna for welcoming her into their home. But as dinner went on, another motive for the evening became painfully clear. Every time Sam or Ainsley of Will or Kate started a conversation with either Jed or Abbey, Donna and Josh and CJ would direct their attention elsewhere, often leaving Jed and Abbey the only ones remaining quiet. Almost as though the seating arrangement and dinner discussion were orchestrated to put Jed and Abbey together.

Jed had voiced what Abbey had suspected. "I'm starting to think this is something of a setup," he'd whispered to her.

"Do they do this to you a lot?"

He shook his head. "If they ever have before, I've never noticed."

"But you noticed this time?"

Jed turned to her and smiled. "It's hard not to notice that the whole room seems designed to do exactly what I want. Which is talk to you."

Lying in bed, Abbey replayed his words over and over in her mind. She must have blushed something awful. Even now, she felt her cheeks get hot as she grinned.

A soft knock came at the door. "Yeah?"

Zoey entered her mother's bedroom quietly. "It's kinda late, are you okay?" she asked with concern.

Abbey smiled again. "Come here, baby girl."

"What's up with you?" Zoey asked as she climbed onto the bed.

Before answering, Abbey pulled her daughter into a snuggle, kissing her hair. "I'm doing great, Zo. Absolutely great."

Zoey started to laugh. "You seem really happy. Did you have fun at that dinner party last night?"

"I had a wonderful time. They were all lovely people, and I quite liked them."

"Who all was there? Anyone I would know?" Zoey asked casually.

"It was the Lymans' anniversary."

"Oh I had Professor Lyman for one of my art history classes when I was an undergrad. She's pretty adorable," Zoey noted.

"That is a very good way to describe her. And there were a few people from the Communications department and a bunch from Political Science. Professor Josh Lyman teaches there." Abbey didn't mention that Jed was there and she hoped that Zoey wouldn't ask. As happy as she was, Abbey wasn't quite ready to gush about her interest in a man to her daughter. They were close, but that felt like a strange line to cross. Abbey had certainly dated when Zoey was little, but she never really shared any of it with Zoey. Not unless she'd specifically asked.

But Zoey wasn't looking for specifics. "I'm glad you had fun. I've met a few of the Poli Sci professors through Charlie and they all seem really great. I'm glad you're making new friends."

"Well I know how you're always trying to get me out of the house," Abbey teased.

"You need to do something other than stare into a microscope all day and watch the Food Network at night."

"Hey, I read books!"

"True. But still. It's good for you to have people, Mom. Really."

Abbey gave Zoey a squeeze. "You worry about me too much. And you don't need to."

"That's not going to stop me," Zoey insisted. She wiggled out of her mother's grasp. "I'm going to make some pancakes. Do you want me to save you some?"

"Please and thank you," Abbey replied happily.

Zoey nodded and left her mother to her lie in. She'd come back and make sure she got up when breakfast was ready. But Zoey had something to do before that. She quickly picked up the phone and called Charlie.

"Hi, Zoey," he said, answering the phone on the first ring.

"Hey, how are you?"

"I'm fine. Deanna is home for the weekend and she needs to leave to get back to school tonight and she keeps procrastinating everything," he complained.

"Oh that's right. I knew there was a reason I wasn't seeing you this weekend, but I'd forgotten exactly why. So you weren't with Bartlet last night?"

"No, Deanna and I went to the movies," Charlie answered, slightly confused

Zoey frowned. "Do you know what he was doing last night?"

"No, Zoey, I don't have the man's calendar memorized."

"Okay! Jeez, I was just curious."

"Why?" Now Charlie was curious too.

"My mom went to a thing last night and a bunch of Poli Sci people were there. But she didn't mention Bartlet. He usually hangs out with that group. She would have mentioned if she'd seen him, right?"

"Maybe. I don't know. What are you thinking?" Charlie asked, picking up on the tone of her voice. Zoey was gearing up for something.

She smiled. "We should do something for them. Come up with a way to put them in the same room together again."

"You think it's time?"

"Yeah, I do. My mom had fun last night. She's in a weirdly happy mood. I can't remember the last time I saw her like this. I think she'd be receptive to spending time with Bartlet, if she stays in this mood. Not that she wouldn't want to spend time with him otherwise, but you know what I mean."

Charlie nodded, even if she couldn't see him over the phone. "Yeah, I get you. If she's in a good mood, she'll go with the flow. She won't ignore the possibility of dating him."

"Do you think Bartlet would go for it?"

"Honestly, I have no idea. He's always really nice to people when he meets them. But he's already met your mom. And I think he liked her. As much if not more than any other woman I've ever seen him with," Charlie noted. He paused, thinking. "Yeah, I think a more concentrated meeting between them might be good. Because the first time they met was at a big party full of a hundred other people. And Bartlet had Professor McGarry and Professor Cregg to talk to."

"I'm glad you see it my way."

Charlie laughed, "I usually do. don't I? So what do you have in mind?"

The sound of a door opening made Zoey jump. "Oops I have to make breakfast. I'll call you later and we can work on the plan," she said hastily. "Love you, bye." And with that, she hung up the phone and scurried into the kitchen to make pancakes for her mother.

On Tuesday, of all the nights, Zoey insisted that she had to take Abbey to a popular new bar.

"Zoey, I'm fine going to a bar with you, but why does it have to be Tuesday? I have class first thing in the morning and I don't feel like going out," Abbey complained.

"Tuesday is the only night they aren't insanely busy," Zoey explained. "I don't want you to go when there's a bunch of undergrads there. What if you run into your students? How weird would that be?"

Abbey just sighed. She could not care less about running into her students. There was nothing that could happen in public that Abbey would be uncomfortable, and besides, seeing teachers in a normal atmosphere either made students see that their professors are just people, or else it terrified them into sobriety. Either way, Abbey was happy.

They entered the bar. It was dimly lit, but not so dark as to be creepy. The chandeliers all had low-wattage bulbs. The light danced off the glass crystals and onto the dark wood walls and bar top. Everything was deep brown with black leather.

Zoey watched her mother gaze around. "Pretty great, right?"

"If their drinks are half as good as this atmosphere, I'm in heaven."

With a satisfied smile, Zoey pointed out a both near the front of the room. "Go grab that table. I'll order us some drinks. You want an Old Fashioned?"

"Yes, please." Abbey pulled her wallet out. "Open a tab for us, Zo." She handed Zoey her credit card. She obviously wasn't going to have her twenty-four year old daughter pay for a round of drinks at a trendy and probably very overpriced bar.

As she sat at the table, looking around, Abbey couldn't help but grin. This place was perfect. Zoey hadn't been wrong. This was a great bar. If the drinks were good, Abbey would definitely be coming back here regularly. She chuckled to herself. The students were sure to love that.

"Hi, Professor Barrington!"

Abbey turned to find Charlie waving at her. "Hey there, Charlie! Zoey didn't tell me you'd be meeting us."

Charlie feigned confusion. "Zoey's here?"

"Yeah, at the bar."

"I guess we both had the same idea. I wanted to show…" he trailed off, looking around. He found who he was looking for and waved him over. "I wanted to show Professor Bartlet this place because I thought he'd like it. And I was right. He barely got in the door before he found the James Joyce pages."

Jed tore himself away from the display case and joined Charlie at a booth by the corner. "Hey, have you seen the…" As he approached the table, he saw who Charlie had been talking to. None other than Abbey Barrington. Jed lost his entire train of thought.

Charlie looked at each professor. They both looked surprised to see the other. But there was something more. They each had a very suspicious smile on their faces. Charlie took that as a good sign. "I'm going to help Zoey with the drinks. You don't mind if Professor Bartlet and I join you, do you?"

"Fine by me," Abbey replied. Her eyes didn't leave Jed's.

He came to sit down across from her when Charlie left. "Fancy running into you here," he commented.

Abbey grinned. "You know, I thought it was weird that Zoey insisted on showing me this bar on a Tuesday."

"Charlie said the same thing to me."

"I do believe we're being set up again," Abbey deduced.

"Did you say anything to Zoey about the restaurant? Or the Lymans' party?"

She shook her head. "I don't talk to her about men I'm seeing."

Jed's brows raised in surprise. "No?"

Abbey realized what she'd said. "Not that we're 'seeing' each other."

"Well, if our friends and family have anything to say about it…"

She laughed, glad he was moving past her verbal slip-up. "I can't believe this keeps happening!"

Jed hesitated a beat before deciding to continue. "Well, I'm not one to ignore signs this obvious. And it looks like the universe is telling us to go out together."

"Is that what the universe is saying?" she replied with a smirk.

"Yes, I do believe it is. So if you'd like to listen to the universe with me, can I take you out to dinner on Friday night?"

"All the way on Friday?"

He should have known she'd give him a sarcastic response. "I'd take you out tomorrow, but a Wednesday isn't really the proper night for a first date. And this will be a proper first date. I'll pick you up and buy you dinner and take you dancing. None of this running into each other unexpectedly where everyone except us seems to know what's going on. If that's alright with you."

Abbey gazed into his eyes and saw a twinkle in that gorgeous blue. Her stomach did a somersault. "That is more than alright with me. I thought you'd never ask, Jethro."

Jed rolled his eyes at the stupid nickname. But it was so hard to be annoyed with her when she laughed in response and the sound gave him electric chills up and down his spine.

At the bar, Charlie and Zoey stood with the drinks in their hands. The ice was melting, but they didn't care. They were too busy watching Jed and Abbey. It was nothing like either had seen from the professors ever before. They weren't even touching but there was something palpable between them. Zoey now knew where her mother's good mood had come from. She'd been wearing that facial expression since she got home on Saturday night.

And as for Bartlet, Charlie couldn't believe that was the same man he'd been doing research projects with for over a year. The man looked like a shining light had been turned on inside him. He was sparkling in his gestures and expressions and even his tone. Charlie had never seen him this happy.

"I don't think this is the first time they've seen each other since the party," Zoey murmured.

"Definitely not," Charlie agreed. He tore his eyes away and looked at Zoey, holding a watered-down Old Fashioned for her mother. "Should we join them?"

Zoey shook her head with a smile. "No, I don't think so. They won't notice we aren't there."


	9. Chapter 9

_Chapter 9_

"Strangers in the night…doo doo do dooo dooooooo…"

Leo walked by a half open door and overheard the strangest sounds. He stopped in his tracks and opened the door. "I thought you were leaving early today."

Jed turned to see his friend staring at him. "Yeah, I'm on my way out in just a minute." He looked back into the mirror to finish tying his tie.

"Hot date?" Leo teased.

Jed just laughed.

"I've never heard you sing before."

"Oh sure you have. I like singing."

"You're not very good at it," Leo countered.

"That may be true, but the joyful expression of song is not diminished by my lack of talent," Jed fired back good-naturedly.

Leo rolled his eyes. "Yeah, whatever."

"And I know you were kidding, but I do have a date tonight. I'm going to stop by the florist and pick up the flowers I ordered before I go pick her up."

"Yeah? With Abbey Barrington?"

Jed looked at him curiously. "Oh, so you did do that on purpose," he commented knowingly.

"Am I that transparent?"

Jed chuckled. "At the time, no. You called me to pick you up, and I just assumed you'd had another drink after hanging up and someone called you a cab. It's happened before."

Leo shook his head with a crooked grin. "Nah, I've been sober over a month now. But I saw Abbey eating alone at the bar and thought it might be a good idea for you to join her."

Throwing his head back, Jed laughed heartily. "I cannot believe everyone I know has been shoving this woman at me."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah. Charlie and Zoey, Abbey's daughter, had us 'run into each other' at a bar the other night. And last weekend, Josh and Donna and CJ did a pretty good job of making sure we sat together at a dinner party."

"I should have known that was a cover," Leo said. "Josh and Donna don't just throw dinner parties. It's probably good I couldn't go."

"Oh, did you have a hot date that night?" Jed joked.

"Actually, yeah. Just like I did that night I saw Abbey at the restaurant. Which is why we left before you arrived."

"You know, I want to be annoyed at you."

"But you're not?"

Jed shrugged. "This is going to be our first official date, but I've got high hopes."

"I'm glad. You deserve it."

"Thanks," Jed answered with a smile.

Leo grinned back at him. "You like her, don't you?"

"You know, I really do."

"I thought you might. Well, good luck with everything tonight."

"Hey, Leo, when am I meeting your girl?"

He just shrugged. "See how things work out with Abbey and we might double sometime."

Jed pointed to him. "I'm gonna hold you to that."

With a small laugh, Leo brushed off the comment and left Jed's office.

After his friend was gone, Jed looked back in the mirror. He was wearing his best three-piece suit. He straightened his tie and buttoned his vest over it before flipping the jacket over his head.

Abbey paced back and forth in the hallway of her small house. Zoey had left to meet Charlie almost an hour earlier, thankfully. Abbey didn't want witnesses for this. At first, she'd kept her interest in Jed from Zoey in some strange sense of motherly self-preservation. But now that she knew Zoey and Charlie wanted her to go out with Jed, she didn't want them to know just out of spite. So as soon as Zoey had left, Abbey had gotten ready for her date at a manic speed. She'd stuffed herself into a burgundy cocktail dress and black pumps. Her hair was down, since Jed had complimented her on it at the Lymans' dinner party. And she'd paid more attention to her makeup than she could recall in her entire life. In the end, Abbey was quite pleased with her appearance. But it did nothing to soothe her nerves.

She sighed to herself. Jed always made her nervous. Perhaps she'd just been conditioned into it, since everyone she knew had been springing him on her unexpectedly since they'd met. This evening was planned. She'd been looking forward to it all week. But it didn't keep her from walking back and forth in the hall, heart pounding, waiting for him to pick her up at seven.

The clock in her hallway began to chime the hour, and before it reached the fourth of seven dings, the doorbell rang. Abbey grinned widely as she went to answer. She did enjoy punctuality.

"Right on time!"

Jed smiled, his blue eyes shining. "Hi, Abbey." He looked her up and down, his smile growing. "Wow, you look beautiful."

Abbey's nose wrinkled joyfully. "Thank you. I really did try," she joked.

He laughed and held out the bouquet of pink lilies and white roses. "These are for you."

"Thank you so much! They're gorgeous! Here, come in for a minute while I put them in water." She let him into her foyer before closing the front door behind him. "How did you know that lilies are my favorite?" she asked, leading him into the kitchen and bringing the flowers up to her nose so she could smell them.

"I didn't," he replied, following her. "I saw this bouquet at the florist and it reminded me of you, somehow."

Abbey paused. "Either that is the most lovely thing anyone has ever said to me, or you are really good at first dates."

Jed smirked, looking away as he blushed. "I don't think it's an 'either/or' situation."

She remained quiet, allowing the moment to hang around them as she got a vase and filled it with water. It only took a moment to arrange the flowers in a pleasing manner and place them on the kitchen table.

As he watched her move around the kitchen, he noticed something unexpected. "Hey, I have that same table!"

"Do you really?" she asked in disbelief, regarding her old scrubbed wood table. "I've had this for years. Yours is probably in better condition than mine. Zoey used to do crafts and work on her homework right here," Abbey remembered with a smile.

"How long have you lived here?"

"It must be almost ten years by now. But the table we've had much longer. I got it for my first apartment after I graduated college, before I got married."

"Oh."

Abbey realized the faux pas of mentioning an ex on a first date. "It didn't last long. It wasn't some great love story, and it wasn't a messy breakup. He just kinda disappeared. Which is just fine for Zo and me. No lingering feelings. Nothing to worry about," she assured him.

Jed just nodded. "Our reservation is at seven thirty," he informed her quietly.

She smiled, placing a kind hand on his arm. "Let me grab my jacket and we can go. And thank you again for the flowers."

They locked eyes for a moment. Jed wasn't sure if he'd said anything in response to her. He couldn't seem to grab a thought out of his head, they were all moving too quickly. He'd also gotten his kitchen table before he'd gotten married. He'd kept it for different reasons. Abbey looked so beautiful. Her eyes were greener than he'd remembered seeing them. Maybe it was just the light. She had an ex-husband out there somewhere, which was strange to think about. Her life had been so much bigger than his, so much fuller. All the things he'd envisioned for himself hadn't come true. But in that instant, feeling her fingers through his jacket and shirt sleeve, Jed Bartlet felt one thing burn brighter than everything else in his mind, something he hadn't felt for himself in such a long time: hope.


	10. Chapter 10

_Chapter 10_

"How's your chicken?" Jed asked, taking a sip of wine.

Abbey smiled, noticing the glint in his eye as he asked that question. "It's wonderful. Perfectly cooked. How's the prime rib?"

"It's exactly what I wanted," he replied, his gaze fixed on her face.

She felt her cheeks get a little hot. Her first instinct was to avert her eyes, but for some reason, she couldn't look away from him. She liked the way he looked at her. It was exciting and comforting all at once.

Their meal then returned to casual conversation. Jed asked a lot of questions about Abbey's research. He was genuinely interested in the work she did, not only because it was important to Abbey, but because Jed always enjoyed learning new things. It was what had led him to academia all those years ago, and it sustained him in his darkest times. There was always more to learn, made all the better when taught by people who cared.

For dessert, they shared a crème brulée. Jed insisted they get a dessert, as what was the point of a nice meal if it couldn't be punctuated with something sweet. Abbey had only mentioned that she enjoyed crème brulée and Jed immediately ordered it. He let her crack the hard sugar top, but she did it with a bit too much gusto, causing some of the creamy custard underneath to fly up and land right on Jed's nose. She laughed and apologized as she leaned across the table to wipe it away with her napkin. Jed had never blushed so hard in his life.

Jed paid the check while Abbey went to powder her nose. He was waiting for her near the front of the restaurant with her coat. "Ready to go?"

"Sure. If that's all there is," she replied, trying to hide her disappointment.

"Well, I believe I told you I'd be taking you to dinner and dancing, but I had something else in mind, if that's alright with you."

Intrigued, Abbey told him, "You're driving, so I'm along for the ride, Jethro."

Jed sighed melodramatically, making her laugh, which made everything worth it.

They drove for about fifteen minutes, further and further out of the main city. It wasn't until they reached the park that Abbey started to ask questions. "You know, taking a woman to a wooded area in the middle of the night isn't really a great sign."

"It is barely nine o'clock, and I promise that we won't all alone, in case you're worried."

"I wasn't worried until you took me to the damn forest," she grumbled.

"I can always take you home right now, if you'd prefer," he suggested.

She shook her head. "No, I'm sorry. That was a dumb joke."

Jed chuckled as he put the car in park. "There's a small paper bag in the back, if you could grab it, please."

Abbey saw what he referenced and pulled it from the backseat. She looked inside and was even more confused. "Socks?"

"Heavy woolen socks," he corrected. "Now wait there for a sec and I'll help you out. The ground is uneven and I don't want you to fall in those nice shoes."

She allowed him to escort her on the dirt path towards a lighted area behind the trees. There was a small hut and a set of park benches. And behind were floodlights illuminating a small manufactured ice rink.

"Oh my god!"

"Is this alright? It's unseasonably warm this year, so they had to put this up when the pond didn't freeze over. It's not really the same, and we don't have to go if you don't want to," Jed babbled.

Abbey gave his arm a squeeze. "This is great," she assured him.

He sat her down on one of the benches as he went to rent skates for them. Abbey changed out of her shoes and put on the socks he'd brought. It was really quite considerate of him. Well-thought and well-planned. Abbey liked that in a man.

"Alright, here we go." Jed handed her a pair of skates and sat beside her to put on his own. "You know, I should have asked if you've ever skated before. Because I have to confess, I haven't done this sense I was much younger."

"I used to take Zoey when she was little. But she lost interest when she was about twelve or so. It's definitely been a while. I did always like it though. Not that I'm any good at all," she added.

He smiled. "Well, that makes two of us. Shall we?" Jed stood and offered her his hand.

Abbey took it, and they made their way into the rink. They both spent an embarrassing amount of time holding onto the side of the walls for balance. Jed noted that it was probably a good thing that it wasn't just the frozen pond, or they'd be spending a lot of time falling. But eventually they got the hang of it. Jed was slightly quicker to catch on than Abbey, so he skated beside her as she continued to cling to the side.

"Here, let's try this." Jed wrapped her free hand around his arm and gently pulled her towards the center of the ice.

"Are you sure this is a good idea? Because about ten minutes ago, you weren't this adept."

"Have a little faith, Professor," he replied with a grin.

Abbey clutched his arm for dear life. She could not remembered what about this experience she had ever enjoyed before. Because she was mildly terrified now. But despite his similar inexperience at ice skating, Jed made her feel safe. Holding him like this was a great comfort, and his comforting grasp was slowly converting her fear into excitement. Another few minutes later, she was genuinely having fun.

Jed could tell she was starting to enjoy herself. Her shoulders had relaxed and her grip on him was slightly less frantic. And she was smiling. He made a quick turn to avoid some oncoming teenagers, causing them to spin out a bit. Abbey let out the most adorable squawk. She'd smacked his arm when he laughed.

Eventually, the lights blinked. The attendant at the skate rental hut waved everyone in. The rink was closing for the night. Abbey couldn't believe how quickly an hour had gone by.

As she removed the skates, she regarded the fluffy socks on her feet. "You know, these are extremely comfortable," she commented.

"If you like them, you should keep them."

"Really?"

"Of course. You've earned them."

Abbey's nose wrinkled with her grin. "Thank you very much. I'm going to take them off now so I can put on my other shoes to go home, but these will be very nice to wear around the house. Or if we ever go skating again."

The optimism in that phrase was not lost on Jed. He practically beamed. "I'll be sure to let Dean Landingham know you liked them. She goes through bouts of knitting sometimes. One year all the department heads got scarves. Last year it was socks. She warned us that it would be knitted caps this year."

"Well, I'm glad her knitting projects could be put to some good use."

Jed helped Abbey back to the car. She asked him more about the idiosyncrasies of Dean Landingham, who Abbey knew very little about. Jed in turn asked about Dean Fiderer, as the only experience he'd had with her was at her birthday party, where he and Abbey had first met.

"She actually tells you to work _less_?" Jed asked in disbelief.

"I know she means well, but it is a little unnerving to have your boss tell you to get a life," she laughed.

"At least we're both lucky enough to have superiors who genuinely care. I've never been happier at the university since Dean Landingham got her position. Her predecessor was a little stuffy and far too concerned about the bottom line. The entire college has done better in the intervening years," he said.

They continued on that same vein until they'd arrived back at Abbey's house. She'd been having such a nice time talking that she hadn't even realized where they were going. "Oh. We're here," she said with an air of surprise.

"Well, I did pick you up, so taking you home was kinda part of the deal there," he pointed out.

He came to open her car door and walk her up to the porch of her house. She took her time fishing her keys out of her purse. "I had a really great time tonight," she told him. "Thank you so much for a wonderful evening."

Jed stood up a little straighter. "I'm glad you enjoyed. I had fun, too."

Abbey paused, her keys poised in one hand, her new socks in the other. "Good first date?" she asked, her eyes locking with his.

His lips ticked into a small smile. "Perfect first date."

She nodded. "Perfect first date," she agreed. And she waited.

It took a moment, but Jed put one hand on her waist and leaned in. She met his lips halfway. Jed had only meant to give her a soft kiss goodnight, something with propriety and worthy of the lovely evening they'd spent. But Abbey clearly had other ideas. Her arms were suddenly around his neck. And Jed couldn't seem to stop himself. His other hand caressed her cheek and tangled in her hair at the base of her neck as his lips moved against hers. He moved forward, intending on pulling her closer, but she stumbled backward. Abbey pulled him with her and ended up pinned to the front door. They remained that way for quite some time. Mouths moving in rhythm, tongues and lips welcoming one another over and over.

Abbey felt like she was about to burst into flame. Her clothes were suddenly very heavy and uncomfortable. She felt her knees begin to go weak. So before she physically couldn't breathe, she pulled away. "Let me get the door," she whispered, panting through her smile.

Jed looked into her eyes, bright gold with excitement and dark green with desire. "I think I should go," he murmured. He knew he wouldn't be able to resist her. He had already gone too far. Obviously she was enjoying. But he couldn't do this. Not yet. Not with her.

Her face was crestfallen. "Oh. Sure," was all she could say.

He stroked her cheek with his thumb one last time and gave her a final quick kiss. "I'll call you tomorrow."

Abbey swallowed hard and just nodded. He stepped away from her and she was lurched back to reality. She opened her front door just as he got into his car. She dropped her purse, coat, and keys onto the floor in the foyer as she watched him drive away.


	11. Chapter 11

_Chapter 11_

Jed Bartlet had a very fitful night's sleep. He knew he'd done the right thing by leaving Abbey at her front door. He knew that. Didn't he? If he had done the right thing, why did he feel guilty? He'd wanted to go inside with her. He relived the feeling of having her in his arms, kissing her breathless. The look of her eyes, changing from desire to disappointment kept haunting him.

As soon as he got up the next morning, he picked up the phone and dialed.

"No one I know would call me this early," a groggy voice answered.

"Oh, sorry, Leo."

It took him a moment to fully wake up and realize who he was talking to. "Jed? What's the matter? Shouldn't you still be with Abbey?"

"No, of course not!" Jed replied, perhaps a bit more forceful than he should have. He was still kidding himself, clearly.

"Didn't the date go well?" Leo asked, curious to find out the purpose of the phone call.

"It went really well. I really like her, Leo."

"Then why didn't you…oh, I see." He put the pieces together and shook his head. "Jed Bartlet, you are too Catholic for your own good. Come on, man, you're both grown adults. There is nothing wrong with acting like it."

"Yeah, well…"

"So why are you calling?"

Jed's voice got a little quieter. "I _really_ like her, Leo."

Leo smiled. "I know you do. You're just going to have to figure it out. When are you going to see her again?"

"I told her I'd call her today. I think I'll see if she's free for dinner."

"Good. You can fix any misunderstandings tonight."

Jed wasn't so sure about that, but he knew Leo had a point. "Yeah," was all he said in response.

Leo could tell his friend wasn't quite convinced, but, frankly, it was far too early in the morning to deal with Jed Bartlet's insecurities. He was a smart guy. He'd figure it out.

After hanging up the phone, Jed figured it was still too early to call Abbey. Besides, he needed to clear his head. He took a long, hot shower and made himself a big breakfast, eating while he read the newspaper.

At long last, he couldn't wait anymore. He just wanted to hear her voice. He dialed her phone number. It was answered on the third ring.

"Hello?" This was not the voice that Jed had been expecting.

"Hi, Zoey? It's Jed Bartlet. I was wondering if I could speak to your mother, please."

Zoey was extremely excited that Bartlet had called asking for her mother. Hopefully this meant that they'd start dating. Her plan had worked! "Sure, Professor Bartlet. Give me just a second."

It took a moment before Abbey came to the phone. "Hi, Jed?"

"Hi, Abbey," Jed said with a grin. She sounded happy.

"A man who calls when he says he will. What a novel concept." Abbey did her best to come across casual and upbeat. No reason Jed needed to hear the sting of disappointment in her voice.

"I like to keep my word," he replied simply. "I had a really great time last night."

"Yeah, me too," she said sincerely. She was just sad it had ended so soon.

"Listen, I know it's a little last minute, but I was hoping you'd let me take you out again tonight."

"Oh, I can't tonight. I'm going to the movies with Zoey tonight. How about tomorrow? Can we do dinner tomorrow night?"

Jed liked that eager tone in her voice. Maybe he hadn't done such a bad thing after all. "Tomorrow works just fine. What movie are you guys seeing tonight?"

Abbey told him all about her monthly ritual with her daughter, where they chose the most obscure film they could find at the local theater and bought a bunch of junk food to eat while watching it. From there, the conversation moved along to this and that. There was a lot of laughter.

Zoey watched her mother sit on the sofa, smiling more on that phone call than she'd seen in years. And beyond being impressed with her own matchmaking skills, Zoey was genuinely excited to see her mother looking so wonderfully happy.

At the movie that night (a German arthouse film that neither of them had any actual interest in), Zoey tried to get Abbey to talk about Bartlet. But Abbey kept changing the subject.

"Zo, we're here to watch the movie."

"Mom, we're here to eat popcorn and candy and read subtitles. It doesn't matter. Tell me why Professor Bartlet called!"

"He called because he told me he would. We're friendly. We spend most of our time talking about you and about Charlie," Abbey fibbed.

"Wait, what?"

"Watch the movie."

And on and on it went for the full ninety minutes. The more frustrated Zoey got, the more amused Abbey became.

On Sunday, Zoey resigned herself to spending the day at Charlie's, working on their research reports. They often did their independent work in each other's company, reading over what they'd written, taking breaks to talk or do whatever else. Abbey was happy to have the house to herself. She had some grading to catch up on before Jed picked her up for dinner.

Once again, he arrived at seven on the dot. She opened the door, this time wearing a black skirt and purple blouse.

"Oh dear."

That was not the reaction Abbey had expected. "Oh dear?"

"I should have told you where we were going. I thought we could go over to the Fall Carnival. Your clothes are far too nice for that."

Abbey noticed that he was wearing jeans and a sweater. "Give me three minutes to change. Here, come in and sit a while. Do you want a drink while you wait?"

He shook his head. "No, I'm fine."

She turned to go back upstairs but he stopped her, grabbing her arm.

"Hmm?"

Jed gently pulled her toward him. "I didn't get to give you a proper hello."

"Oh?"

He leaned in a kissed her softly, lingering just slightly longer than an innocent greeting.

Abbey pulled back and took a deep breath, blinking back to reality. "You know, we don't have to go anywhere…"

Jed chuckled. "Go change."

She reemerged a few minutes later, this time wearing a lowcut brown knit sweater and fitted jeans.

"Wow," he remarked, looking her up and down.

Abbey laughed. "Wow? Really?"

"Yeah. I like you in jeans." He made his way to the front door. "Shall we?"

She watched him walk away from her and smirked. "I like you in jeans too," she muttered to herself.

Jed felt like the carnival was something of a risk; it was outdoors and loud, children running everywhere and lots of crowds and junk food and precarious mechanical rides. Not usually a good romantic date.

He needn't have worried. Abbey's eyes lit up as she took in the sights. She told him that despite living in the area for many years, she'd never been to the carnival. They wandered around, hand in hand. They got hot dogs and funnel cake and beer, eating at a cold wooden picnic table. They looked at all the craft booths, where Jed bought Abbey a crocheted scarf she admired. Before leaving, they went on the Ferris Wheel.

They sat down and buckled into the swinging seat. Abbey confessed, "I really don't like heights, so you'll have to hold my hand."

"Why didn't you say something? We don't have to do this, Abbey."

She shook her head. "No, I want to. Just don't let go of me."

Jed put his left arm around her shoulder and held her hand tight with his right. "I won't let go," he promised.

The ride jerked and Abbey nearly jumped out of her skin. She could feel herself start to panic a bit as they got about ten feet in the air, climbing ever higher. "Distract me," she begged.

"Oh, um, okay." Not knowing what else to do, Jed captured her lips with his.

That certainly did the trick. Abbey relaxed immediately. They kissed for quite a long time. She was a little annoyed that the metal bar was inhibiting their movements, but that was probably for the best. Nothing could bother her now. It wasn't until she got a hard tap on her shoulder that she and Jed broke apart. They'd ended up back on the ground and hadn't even noticed.

They both blushed fiercely as they scurried off the ride. Everyone was staring at the middle-aged couple making out on the Ferris Wheel. But Jed and Abbey just laughed it off as they made their way back to Jed's car.

"I am so mortified!" she laughed. "But I can't be upset, because that's the best ride I've ever been on in my life!"

He laughed with her, giving her hand a squeeze. "I'm glad you had fun."

Abbey was excited for him to take her home. Certainly after their display at the carnival, he would come inside and up to her room this time. She kept sneaking glances at him as he drove, eagerly anticipating getting him into bed. If the way he kissed was any indication, she was sure to have a wonderful time.

Jed felt her eyes on him, and he didn't hate it. She had enjoyed herself, and he loved being with her. It felt like he'd known her forever, like they'd always been together, somehow. It was still new and exciting, but the connection he felt whenever he was with her made him feel so at ease. He was sorry to be taking her home. But they both had to teach in the morning, so they couldn't be out too late, he knew.

He walked her to her front door and kissed her goodnight. But this time, Abbey had her keys ready and took his hand. "Come inside," she invited.

Jed hesitated for a fraction of a second. He took half a step forward before stopping himself. "I don't think so." He kissed her cheek and let go of her hand. "I'll call you."

Abbey was stunned. She was frozen in place on her porch as he walked back to his car, started the engine, and drove away. When the street became dark again, she was able to force herself inside the house.

She didn't even notice that everything was dark. Numbly, she put her keys in the bowl by the door. There was a piece of paper next to it. Zoey had left a note. Apparently, she'd returned from Charlie's but realized she'd forgotten her notebook so she drove back to get it.

So Abbey would be alone for a little while. She sat down on the staircase and stared straight ahead, trying not to cry. She wished she could talk to someone. A girlfriend would be good right about now. But she didn't want to talk to Zoey about this. Dean Fiderer also wasn't the kind of person she wanted to discuss her romantic life with. And her new friends, CJ and Donna, were more friendly with Jed than they were with her, so she couldn't possibly talk to them. Abbey felt so very alone.

All of a sudden, the front door opened in front of her.

"Professor Barrington?"

Abbey looked up to see Charlie standing in front of her. "Hi, Charlie." Her voice cracked and she hated herself for it.

He held up a black book. "Zoey left her notebook at my place. I came to bring it to her."

"She left a note saying she was going back to your place to get it. You must have just missed each other," Abbey replied sullenly. Although she knew better, being a biologist, Abbey felt like her vocal cords were attached to her tear ducts. The more she spoke, the harder it was to keep from crying.

"Are…are you okay?" Charlie asked awkwardly.

And then the tears fell. Abbey let out a thoroughly embarrassing sob. "Why doesn't he want me?" she cried.

"Who?"

"You know who," she replied with hitched breaths.

Charlie took a step towards her. "I feel like I should hug you. Is that okay?"

Abbey nodded her head. Charlie came to sit beside her and put his arms around her shaking form. She sobbed into his shoulder, repeating desperately, "Why doesn't he want me? What's wrong with me? Why doesn't he want me?"

As subtly as he could manage, Charlie pulled his phone out of his pocket and sent a text message to Zoey, telling her to get home ASAP. Charlie didn't know what had happened, and he wasn't sure he wanted to. All he knew was that he'd never seen Professor Barrington like this, and Professor Bartlet had somehow been the cause.


	12. Chapter 12

_Chapter 12_

Abbey had a moment of clarity and realized that she was crying on the stairs of her home on her daughter's boyfriend's shoulder. She quickly calmed herself down and pulled away. "I'm so sorry, Charlie." She stood up and wiped her eyes.

Charlie was still concerned. "It's okay, Professor Barrington. Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, I really don't," she replied with a small smile.

"Okay, well, Zoey is on her way back over."

"Please don't tell her about this, Charlie. She doesn't need to know. And I'm sorry I fell apart like this. You can leave Zoey's notebook on the counter and let yourself out, if that's alright." She didn't wait for him to respond before she hurried upstairs and shut her bedroom door.

"Sure," Charlie said quietly. He did, however, wait outside for Zoey to get back. He didn't tell her exactly what had happened, or what he'd pieced together. He only said that he'd found her mother very upset and that she'd gone up to her room. Zoey was naturally concerned but didn't know what to do.

The next day, Abbey woke up feeling awful. She'd refused to cry herself to sleep, as much as she felt like she could have. She had changed out of her clothes and gotten right into bed. The alarm went off far too early, interrupting an extremely fitful night's sleep. But that wasn't going to stop her. No, she would forget all about her pain of rejection and go about her day as though nothing had gone wrong. And really, nothing did go wrong. There was no reason for her get upset last night. They'd had a lovely time. That's what she needed to hold on to.

Nevertheless, she felt terrible. But no one else needed to know that.

Zoey watched her mother all through breakfast. She seemed alright. But Zoey couldn't be sure. "Charlie said you were upset last night. Did something happen?"

"No, nothing," Abbey replied casually, taking a sip of coffee.

"Are you sure? You don't really get upset too much. Do you want to talk about it?"

"It's nothing, I promise. Charlie was unfortunately in the wrong place at the wrong time. I'm fine, baby girl. I'm just sorry poor Charlie had to witness my temporary insanity," she joked.

Zoey wasn't convinced, but she knew better than to press the subject.

Elsewhere, Charlie got to campus earlier than he had in a long time. He knew this couldn't wait. Professor Bartlet always prepared in his office before his morning classes. Charlie barged right in.

Jed looked up to see his young research assistant looking very odd. "Charlie? What's wrong?"

"Look, I don't know what's going on, and I don't really want to know. Zoey wanted to set you guys up, and I thought you'd like each other, but I really didn't want to get involved. I still don't. But I was there last night when Professor Barrington started crying and…"

"She was crying?!" Jed interrupted.

"Yes. She was crying and all I could hear was her saying 'Why doesn't he want me?' over and over. Now, I don't know what you did, and I don't care, but I know Professor Barrington and I have _never_ seen her like that. I didn't know a situation existed where she wouldn't make some kind of joke to ease tension. I know you aren't the kind of person to let people be in that much pain," Charlie scolded.

Jed's heart plummeted into his stomach. "All I…well, what happened was…"

Charlie put his hands up to stop him. "I don't want to know. This isn't about me. I just couldn't do nothing after seeing her like that." And with that, he turned and left, closing the office door behind him.

Jed sat in his office in a stupor. He never imagined he'd upset her. Again. But this was so much worse. This time, however, he was sure to make it right. He picked up his office phone.

He dialed Abbey's phone number and got no response. She was probably avoiding him. Or maybe she'd already left home and come to campus. He hung up without leaving a message. Jed checked his watch and noticed that he had precious little time before he had to teach a class. But he needed to take care of this first.

"Hello?"

"CJ, I need your help."

Upon hearing the voice of the caller, CJ leaned over her desk in her office and grinned. "Oh yeah? What can I do?"

"I need you to get a message to Abbey Barrington. I can't reach her right now. I only have her home phone number."

CJ frowned. There was a desperate note to his voice. "Do you want her office number? She's in the faculty directory."

"No, I'm afraid she'll hang up on me. Do you think you can see her today?"

Now CJ was really concerned. "I can try. What happened?"

Jed sighed, "I screwed up.

"What did you do!?" CJ asked angrily. "She's nice and I swear to god if you…"

"No, it isn't…I don't know, CJ, but can you just tell her that I'm sorry?"

"That's it? You're sorry?"

"For now, yeah. But you have to tell her today. As soon as you can," he insisted.

CJ nodded. "You got it, sir." She heard the line click out. CJ was concerned. It wasn't like Bartlet to get this flustered. Something obviously happened with Abbey, something that would lead him to think she'd avoid his calls and make him desperate enough to bring in a third party to fix it.

Since she didn't have any classes until much later, CJ figured she'd go across campus to the Biology building in person. She left her office and locked it behind her.

"Hi, CJ!"

She turned to see the diminutive blonde Professor Annabeth Schott greeting her. "Hey, how's it going?"

Annabeth smiled brightly. "Absolutely wonderfully." She walked by singing softly to herself.

"Hang on, I know that song…how does it go?"

Upon CJ's prompting, Annabeth stopped and sang a few bars of My Funny Valentine.

CJ smiled. "You've got a great voice."

"Thanks!"

"And a friend of mine loves that song. That's so weird."

"Well, it is a popular old standard."

CJ nodded. "Yeah, but Leo went on for like an hour about it one time. I don't hear it that much."

Annabeth pressed her lips together and shrugged. "Yeah. Weird." And with that, she hurried down the hall to her own office.

CJ kept looking behind her, curious about Annabeth now. But she had to go see Abbey first.

Abbey was grading papers in her office when a knock came at her door. She frowned. Who could possibly want to bother her at nine in the morning? "Come in," she called. To Abbey's surprise, CJ Cregg walked in. "CJ. Hi," Abbey greeted dubiously.

"Good morning, Abbey. Sorry to bother you so early."

"No bother. Do you want to sit down?"

CJ hesitated. "I'm not sure. I've been sent to you with a message."

Abbey chuckled. "This is rather cloak and dagger. What's the message?"

"Jed Bartlet says he's sorry."

Abbey's entire expression soured. "Oh."

"What happened with you two?" CJ asked.

"What did he tell you?"

"Nothing," CJ replied truthfully. "He just said that you might be avoiding his calls and that it was really important that you know he's sorry."

Abbey groaned. "This is so stupid!"

"What happened?" CJ asked again.

"Nothing! Nothing happened! And I am fine. I am not avoiding his calls. I'm not avoiding anything! I'm fine!" Abbey insisted.

"Typically, people who are fine don't insist they're fine that loudly."

Abbey let out a slow, deep breath and repeated quietly, "I'm fine."

CJ narrowed her eyes. "I don't think I believe you, but whatever you say. Are you free for lunch today? We can grab a bite somewhere if you want."

"You know, that sounds wonderful," Abbey replied with a smile.

Everyone went on with their mornings as though nothing were amiss. Abbey taught her morning lab class. CJ spent far too much time thinking about Annabeth Schott and the nagging thought in the back of her head that somehow connected her with Leo. Jed taught his back to back Economics lectures.

Abbey and CJ met for lunch at a café across the street from campus. CJ had the good sense to refrain from asking about Bartlet. And Abbey enjoyed the distraction from pretending she was or was not upset; she still hadn't fully decided which she was truly feeling.

The change came when she returned to her office after lunch to prepare for her afternoon lecture. The room was filled with bouquets of pink and white and yellow lilies. It was fragrant and beautiful and a bit shocking.

On her desk was a vase of them with a card attached. She knew who they were from but read the card anyway.

 _I never wanted you to be upset. I'm so sorry. Please let me make it up to you. – Jed_

Abbey frowned. What on earth did he think he was making up for? She cleared a path to her phone and called his office.

"Hello?"

"Why the hell is my office a tropical jungle?!"

Jed's first reaction was to laugh but the sound caught in his throat. "I wanted to apologize."

"And you did. Through CJ and through an entire florist. You could have just called me, you know."

"I didn't know if you'd take my call."

"Do you really think I'm that childish?"

Jed suddenly felt very foolish. "Charlie said you were crying," he said quietly.

"Charlie said…dammit, that boy!" Abbey cursed. She sighed. "He shouldn't have said anything to you. I'm not that upset. I shouldn't have been upset to begin with. We had a wonderful night and you did nothing wrong and there is nothing to apologize for," she said adamantly.

The line was quiet for a moment.

"Jed?"

"Yeah, sorry. Listen, do you want to come over to my place tonight? I'd like to cook you dinner."

"You cook, too?"

"I have been known to whip up a thing or two," he replied with a small smile.

Abbey grinned. "I'd like that."

Jed gave her his address and told her to come over any time between six and seven, and that she shouldn't feel any need to dress up. She responded by telling him to wear a tuxedo for her. They shared a laugh before hanging up.

Later that night, Abbey grabbed her purse and shouted, "Zoey, I'm going out to dinner. Don't wait up."

Zoey ran out from her room to the foyer, startled to find six vases full of lilies, but ignoring them for the moment. "Wait, what? Where are you going?"

"I'm meeting a friend for dinner."

"Is it Professor Bartlet?" Zoey asked knowingly.

"Yes it is. He needs my advice on how to fire Charlie."

"What!?"

"See you later, baby girl." With a laugh, Abbey closed and locked the front door and got in her car to drive over to Jed's.

She pulled up to a small but very pleasant-looking house in a nearby neighborhood. There were big trees and overgrown hedges in front, but the porch was clean and swept, except for a small patch of dust underneath a glider by the front window. The house was painted a very pale blue-gray with a red door and red shutters all around.

Jed saw her pull up and opened the door before she rang the doorbell. As soon as she saw him, she started laughing. "I was joking, you know."

He grinned and straightened the black bowtie on his tuxedo. "Ask and you shall receive, Professor Barrington." He invited her inside and kissed her hello. "You look perfect, by the way."

Abbey had decided she wanted to look at least a little nice for him. She'd decided to wear the purple blouse and black skirt she'd originally worn before changing to go to the carnival the night before. "I'm glad you like it. I figured it would be appropriate now. Though clearly I'm underdressed."

"Nonsense! I'm actually going to change out of this thing in a minute, if that's okay. I only put it on for the gag. It's uncomfortable as hell."

"Pity. You look really good," she said, eyeing him up and down.

He just chuckled. "Nah, I can't cook in this. Give me a second. Feel free to make yourself at home. I've got a full bar back there, if you want to make yourself a drink."

"I will, thanks."

Jed left the room and Abbey wandered around, looking at the things in his home. He had a variety of lovely things framed on his walls. Some artwork, some old maps, some vintage movie posters. No photographs, though. No trace of friends or family members. Abbey was struck with a sad feeling. She realized how little she knew about him.

When Jed returned, wearing a polo shirt and slacks, he found Abbey pouring herself a glass of scotch. "Want to get one for me, too?"

"Sure." She came over with two glasses. They clinked them together and took a drink. "So what's for dinner, Bartlet?"

"I have a pot roast in the oven and potatoes cooking on the stove and in a minute, I'm going to sauté some vegetables and mash the potatoes, if that sounds good to you."

She nodded. "Sounds great. Can I do anything to help?"

"You can come keep me company," he suggested.

Abbey followed him into the kitchen and sat down at the scrubbed wood table. The same one she had in her own kitchen, as he'd told her on their first date. Such a strange coincidence.

"You okay?"

Obviously, he'd noticed her being quiet. She'd tried to pretend like nothing had happened. But she clearly wasn't doing a good job of it. "I'm fine," she lied. Abbey frowned. "Actually, no. I realized that I don't know very much about you. I walked into your house and was surprised that it wasn't what I expected until I realized that I had no idea what to expect."

Jed took off the oven mitts after checking the pot roast. He came to sit beside her at the kitchen table. "I don't talk about myself much," he acknowledged, "because there isn't much to tell. You have wonderful stories about your work and raising Zoey and your childhood with your parents and your sister. I don't have stories like that."

"But you must have stories."

"Well, they aren't really 'first date' stories."

"This is our third date. So try me."

Jed took another sip of his scotch. "Alright, well, to address the elephant in the room that you seem content to ignore, I guess I should tell you about my wife."

"Your wife is the elephant in the room?"

"Would you just listen, please?"

Abbey's lips ticked upward. "Go ahead."

"I was raised Catholic. Actually, my mother was Catholic, and my father and brother were Protestant. I went to church with my mother. My father and brother didn't go to church at all. I believed very strongly in Catholicism, in doing God's will and obeying the Church. In some ways, I still do. I go to church every Sunday."

Abbey wanted to tell him that she was also Catholic, but she didn't want to interrupt.

He continued, "When I was in college, I met Linda. We met in church, actually. She was smart and sweet and demure and blonde and pale, like an angel. We both believed in chastity until marriage, so we waited until our wedding night, two years later. And for six months, we had a very happy marriage. We planned on starting a family, even though I was in grad school at the time. We didn't want to wait. We wanted children. And we though she was pregnant." Jed took another drink, steeling himself for the revelation he'd never told anyone else. "I went with her to her first doctor's appointment. But Linda wasn't pregnant. She had cancer. Really advanced uterine cancer. By the time they caught it, there was nothing they could do. She died two months later. We hadn't even been married a full year."

Until that moment, Jed had avoided eye contact. But he needed to see how Abbey would react. He looked up to find her gold and green eyes shining with unshed tears. "Jed, I'm so sorry," she said quietly.

"It was a long time ago. Leo was with me for most of it. He was best man at my wedding. He helped me move out of the house and let me stay with him while I transferred grad programs. That's how I ended up here. Been here ever since."

Abbey didn't have words. She just put her hand on his arm and gave it a small squeeze of support.

He covered her hand with his and gave her a small smile. "The reason I tell you this is so that you'll understand where I came from. When you invited me in last night, I cannot tell you how much I wanted you."

"Then why did you leave?"

"After Linda died, I dated a lot, hoping to get myself back out there and get over my loss. And I came to realize that I never really loved her. I think I married her because I was supposed to, assuming that sharing a life together would allow me to grow to love her the way I should have. But I didn't get to. And coming from such a religious belief system, I felt abandoned by God, punished for marrying someone because I wanted a wedding night, not a wife. I gave up on that belief very quickly."

"So you haven't had sex since your wife died?"

"No, of course I've had sex in the last twenty-eight years, Abbey, jeez!"

His tone made her laugh. "So then what's the problem?"

Jed took her hand and brought her fingers to his lips. "You're special."

"Thank you."

"No, I mean it. I'm not dating you the way I dated the other women after Linda. And you're nothing like Linda. You're special."

And suddenly, Abbey understood. "You don't want me to be punished like she was."

"Well, I wouldn't put it in those words, but I've never cared about anyone the way I care about you and I just don't know what to do."

Abbey's nose wrinkled with joy. "And here I was, thinking you didn't want me."

"Abbey, I want everything about you."

"And you know that after three dates?"

"I knew that after three minutes."

Her heart skipped a beat. She didn't know whether to laugh or cry or kiss him or run away. All Abbey knew was that no man had ever made her feel like this before. She blinked and cleared her throat. "Maybe you should check on dinner."

Jed nodded in understanding. "Okay." He gave her hand one more squeeze before letting it go and seeing to the roast.


	13. Chapter 13

_Chapter 13_

Jed and Abbey ate dinner together at the kitchen table. They had a good-natured conversation full of laughs. They avoided the tricky topics of former spouses, friends, school, and children. Instead, they kept to politics and religion, both of which gave them a lot to debate and agree on. Jed had never had so much fun. Abbey couldn't stop smiling.

She insisted on helping him do the dishes after they finished eating. They continued talking and laughing all the way through.

When she'd dried the last dish, Jed offered her a nightcap.

"I don't think I should. It's a school night. I have to get home," she replied.

He gave a half-smile. "You don't have to go home."

She knew what he was getting at. "Yes, I think I do."

Jed took two steps toward her, putting his arms around her waist and gently pinning her against the counter. "Are you sure?" he whispered before leaning in to kiss her neck, just below her ear.

Abbey inhaled sharply and bit her lip to keep herself from audibly moaning. She allowed him to continue for a few moments, wrapping her arms around his neck and holding him close. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she noticed how nicely they fit together, perfectly molding against one another's bodies. She moved her head just enough to begin kissing him deeply.

After a little while, however, she pulled away. "Okay, now I have to go home."

Jed blinked at her, stunned slightly. "You aren't staying?" he asked, slightly deflated. "I thought you wanted to…"

She stroked his cheek tenderly. "I wanted to know why you didn't want to, and now I know. You weren't ready yet."

"But I am now!"

She chuckled. "I guarantee you'll feel differently ten minutes after I leave. You're only saying this now because I am an extremely good kisser."

"Well, that's true," he admitted.

"And you're rather skilled yourself." She gave him one more peck and a smile. "Thank you for dinner. I'll see you soon."

Jed stepped aside to let her walk past him. He grabbed her hand at the last moment. "Abbey, I know you're making good points and you're thinking about me, but I really don't want you to go. Even if we don't go to bed, I don't want you to go. But I'm not going to stop you."

Abbey felt that heart-flipping feeling again. His eyes were so full of intense sincerity and it almost scared her. She didn't know what to say. So she just gave his hand a squeeze before walking out of the kitchen and out to her car.

The next day, Abbey couldn't get Jed out of her mind. His eyes and his lips and his hands and the sound of his voice and the way she tingled every time he laughed. She barely cared that she was grinning like an idiot. Thank god she only had one lecture that day; she could barely concentrate on the words coming out of her mouth.

As soon as she was free from class, she decided to ignore the stack of papers she had to grade and instead go for a walk. A walk across campus. To the social science building. To see Jed. Abbey hadn't seen his office, and this seemed as good a time as any.

The elevator had a convenient directory that informed her that the Economics Department was located on the third floor. She went up and figured she'd wander around until she found Jed's office.

"Hey, Abbey!"

She was jolted from her daze by a familiar voice. She smiled. "Hi, Leo. How are you?"

"I'm great, thanks. What brings you to this end of campus?"

"I was looking for Jed's office, actually."

"Is he expecting you?" Leo asked curiously.

"No, I thought I'd surprise him and drop by. Is he in class right now?"

"He just left, actually. I think he went to see Donna. They have lunch or coffee once a week or so. That's usually where he is if he's not teaching or working in his office," he informed her.

Abbey frowned. "Oh. Well, that'll teach me to call ahead next time."

Leo made a quick decision. "Since you're here, would you mind coming to my office for a minute?"

"Sure. Are you on this floor?"

"Yeah, Economics is on one side of the hall and Political Science is on the other. Walking around here, you're liable to run into me, Jed, Charlie, Josh, Sam, or Will."

"No wonder you're all friends!"

"And CJ, Toby, Annabeth, and Ainsley are all in the next building over. Communications and Philosophy," he explained.

Abbey followed Leo down to his office. She got mildly nervous when he closed the door behind her, explaining that they'd have more privacy this way.

Leo sat down at his desk, pointing her to a chair in front of him. After they were both settled, he began, "I was hoping I could talk to you. Now, I don't want to get involved in your love life. Actually, I really don't want to have anything to do with your love life. But you're dating my best friend."

Abbey started to laugh. "I didn't expect the 'protective best friend' speech so early on!"

"Yeah, well, I'm not used to giving it. I've done a pretty good job scaring the hell out of the guys my daughter dates, except for Sam, but this is different. You're different, Abbey."

"I'm one of a kind," she interjected with levity.

"I'm serious. He's never been like this before. And I mean never. I was the best man at his first wedding, so I'd know."

"I'm sorry, his _first_ wedding?" she interrupted..

"There's only been one, but I've always kinda figured he'd find someone someday."

Abbey's mouth suddenly got very dry. This conversation was getting dangerously close to what she'd heard from Jed the night before. "What are you saying?"

"I'm saying that you seem amazing but you'd better be if you keep on with him. Because he's the best man I know and I can't see him get hurt again. Did he tell you what happened with his wife?"

"Yes," Abbey said simply.

Leo nodded. "Then you know. He doesn't do romantic relationships. He's full of love but he focuses it on his friends because, until now, he's had nowhere else to put it." Leo stopped talking before he said too much. Despite what he had heard from Jed and what he'd pieced together, it wasn't his place to say these things to Abbey.

She could see him stop himself. Leo was clearly getting carried away with his loyalty. "Can I say something to you? I know you're Jed's best friend and you'll always take his side, as you should, but I don't really have anyone else I can talk to."

"Sure."

Abbey's brow furrowed as she vocalized the concerns she'd tried to ignore. "I don't know what to do. You don't need to confirm or deny it, but I think he's falling in love with me. And I gotta be honest, Leo, I am not used to anyone falling in love with me. I thought my first husband loved me, and he didn't. Not properly, anyway."

"First husband?"

She smirked. "Well, it's only been the one. But I, too, am optimistic for the future." She sighed in frustration before continuing, "But Jed is so different. The way he makes me feel, the fact that I cannot stop thinking about him, no matter how hard I try, the way he looks at me. It's…a lot. He is incredible, as you know, and he deserves everything wonderful in the world. And I'm just…me."

"You're pretty fantastic, yourself, Abbey."

"Oh I know, but what if I can't…or I'm not…" She trailed off before recollecting herself. She looked Leo right in the eye and admitted, "I don't want to hurt him, but I'm afraid that I'm not ready."

Leo nodded knowingly. He certainly understood that feeling all too well. "If you think you'll be ready someday, just tell him. He'll wait."

"He shouldn't have to wait."

"He'll wait for you."

Abbey felt scared again. But in one beat of her heart—because that's all the time it took to absorb Leo's words—the fear was gone. She opened her mouth to say something but closed it again, pausing to consider.

Leo smiled. He'd said what he'd wanted to say. She got the picture. "I won't say anything to him if you don't want me to."

She chuckled. "Honestly, I don't know if I want you to say anything or not. But you know, I just realized that I'm waiting for him and he's waiting for me, and somehow, I think we've been waiting for each other a lot longer than that."

A crooked smile spread on Leo's face. Any doubts he'd had were erased. Leo was sure that the next time he spoke to Jed, it would be obvious to see how head over heels he'd fallen for this woman. And listening to Abbey now, Leo knew that, although she hadn't quite figured it out for herself yet, she was falling in love with Jed too.


	14. Chapter 14

_Chapter 14_

Jed found himself back at the campus art museum, making his way through the exhibit rooms with a critical eye.

Donna watched him with concern, chewing on her thumbnail. "So? What do you think?"

He turned to her with a curious look. "Why are you so convinced that I have an opinion with any authority at all? I mean, aren't you the Art History professor? I model international economies for a living. What insight could I possibly give?"

She rolled her eyes. "Oh don't give me that! You have been to every museum in a hundred-mile radius more times than anyone could count, and you've never _not_ had an opinion on how it was set up. You notice this stuff. And your opinion matters to me. In this and in everything."

"Donna, you are a very skilled curator, and you should have confidence in your abilities and your instincts."

"Does that mean you like it?"

Jed laughed, "Yes, I like it. Every room has a very nice flow. The pieces are well-placed in the space and in relation to each other. And I see that you took my advice by placing sculptures in the open areas." He took one more quick scan around the room before adding, "If they don't give you a permanent curator position, they're crazy."

Donna's face lit up. "You really think so?"

"Would I lie to you?"

She shook her head with a big grin and came to give her a big hug. "Thank you so much!"

He pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "Alright, can we get coffee now? I was up late last night and I'll be dead on my feet by the time I have to teach my afternoon seminar if I don't get some caffeine."

They made their way to the campus coffee shop and took their cups to a cozy table in the corner. Donna caught Jed up on the recent goings-on with Josh, and he listened intently. She paused in the middle of a sentence. "What's that look on your face?"

"What look?"

"I don't know. It's like a smile but not really. Anything you want to say?"

"I'm just so proud of you, Donna. Getting to watch you grow up from a shy student to the strong woman you are now has been a great blessing to me. I know I'm not really old enough to be your father, but I'd like to imagine that this is similar to what it feels like to have a daughter."

Donna's eyes welled up and she huffed, "You're gonna make me cry!"

"No, none of that," he said, slightly insistent. He knew he needed to change the subject. "Hey, can I ask you something?"

She blinked back her tears. "Of course."

"How did you know you were in love with Josh?"

That was not what Donna had been expecting. "Oh. Um. Wow, okay, well, I think…Gosh, I don't really know. I knew I liked him from the first moment. Something about how he ran his fingers through his fluffy hair and the way his mouth kind of falls open when he's paying really close attention to someone talking. And when we talked for the first time, I was asking him a question and he launched into this long-winded explanation. He knows so much and he wants so much to teach and help others understand. He pretends like he's so tough, but he cares really deeply about every single one of his students. And I somehow saw that in our first interaction. After that, I couldn't get the image of his smile out of my head. I just knew I wanted to spend as much time with him as I could. We talked for hours on our first date. And we laughed a lot. I don't know if I can exactly pinpoint how I knew, but I think I knew I was in love with him when I realized how well we fit together. We just…fit. And now I can't imagine spending my life with anyone else, or without Josh a part of it."

"When did you know?"

"I saw the potential immediately. And I guess after a couple weeks, nothing had happened to make me change my mind. It still hasn't," she replied.

Jed gave a small smile, his eyes looking a little sad. "You're very lucky, both of you. But I guess when you know, you know."

"Can I ask what this is all about?" Donna asked curiously.

"I don't think I ever fully recognized, until very recently, that I never loved my wife. Not like how you're describing with Josh. I should have never gotten married without that," Jed realized aloud.

Donna tilted her head slightly to the right. "What made you think about that?"

Jed took the last few swallows of his coffee, using the pause to consider whether or not he wanted to answer truthfully. "Abbey," he said finally.

Donna gasped happily, "Oh my god, we did it!? Our setup worked!?"

"Yours, Leo's, Charlie and Zoey's, you were all throwing us at each other!" he replied with feigned bitterness.

"For good reason, it looks like." She beamed at him. "This is so great. This is amazing. You deserve this."

"You're feeling pretty pleased with yourself, aren't you?" he teased.

"Well yes, but also I'm just so happy with you! We all thought you two might like each other, but I honestly didn't predict that it would be anything serious. It is serious, right?"

"I'd like it to be. We'll see." Jed didn't want to say anything more on the subject. He was working very hard to be aware of his own feelings, but he didn't have a clue where Abbey stood on all of this. He hoped she was on the same page, but he just wasn't sure.

Jed checked his watch and realized he'd stayed far too long at coffee. He had slightly less than an hour before class, and he wanted to go over his lecture notes to make sure everything was organized.

Donna rushed back to her office to grab her things and go home to tell Josh everything.

A knock came on Jed's office door. He grumbled to himself at the interruption. "Yeah, come in," he called out resignedly. The door opened hesitantly, but the visitor was not a shy student, as Jed had suspected. "Abbey!" he greeted in surprise.

"Is this a good time?" she asked.

"I have a seminar at four, but I'd love nothing more than to spare a few minutes for you."

She nodded, happy with that answer. She closed the door behind her and walked to his desk. Jed had stood up from his chair, but she made him sit back down so she could sit on his lap. She leaned in for a searing kiss.

Jed held her by her waist and thighs, his heart beating fast from having her on him this way. They continued their passionate kiss for a few moments.

Abbey pulled away to catch her breath. "God, I've wanted to do that all day."

"Is that so?" he questioned with a smirk.

"Mhmm. I haven't stopped thinking about you since I left last night. I could barely get through teaching," she confessed.

He chuckled. "Well that is nice to hear. And I suppose I can tell you that I had dreams of you when I finally fell asleep."

Abbey grinned, her nose wrinkling joyfully. She gave him another quick kiss. "I came to see you earlier, but you weren't here."

"I was out with Donna."

"Yeah, that's what Leo said. He and I had a very nice chat."

Jed was suddenly nervous. "Yeah?"

"He loves you very much."

He nodded. "I'm lucky to have him."

Her expression turned gravely serious. "Jed, I think I can tell you that the things you said last night scared me a little."

"I'm sorry."

"No, don't apologize," she interrupted, cutting of whatever he was going to say. "I'm glad you told me. And after talking to Leo today, I'm not scared anymore. At all. I'm not going anywhere. As long as you want me, I'll be right here."

Jed didn't have words. He pulled her towards him and kissed her again. He didn't imagine that she'd say anything like that, especially so soon. But maybe in all the time he'd spent figuring out what he felt for Abbey, she'd been thinking through the same things. She must have. Because here she was, securely in his arms and on his lap. And if it weren't for the class he had to teach in fifteen minutes, he would have never let her go.


	15. Chapter 15

_Chapter 15_

CJ turned the page in the newspaper and stared at it blankly for a minute before loudly setting it aside with a frustrated sigh.

Toby looked up from the essay he was grading. "Something on your mind?"

"Yeah, actually. What do you know about Annabeth?"

"Annabeth Schott?"

"No, Annabeth…Actually, no. You tell me. What other Annabeth could I be referring to?"

Toby shrugged. "I have no idea. You aren't being very specific. What do you want to know?"

"Do you know if she's single?"

"Why, are you interested?"

CJ groaned in annoyance. "This isn't about me! I'm trying to figure out if she's Leo's new girlfriend!"

Toby's eyebrows jumped halfway up his forehead. "Leo? Isn't he a little old for Annabeth?"

"Stranger things have happened. And actually, that was my first thought. I looked into their personnel records using my Department Head powers and she's older than you'd think. And he's actually younger than I thought. You know he's the same age as Bartlet? And she's only a couple of years younger than me."

"Oh so she's really not that young."

CJ's jaw dropped. "What's that supposed to mean!?" she laughed. When he didn't respond, merely smirking at her, she threw a pen at him, only making him laugh. She caught her breath and refocused the conversation. "So you don't know if they're together?"

"I have no idea. I also don't know why you'd think I would know," he pointed out.

"Well, pay attention and let me know if you figure anything out. I think I've gotten Bartlet and Abbey all set up, so I'm ready to move on to Leo now."

Toby shook his head at her. "You know, you could just do your job."

"That would just make life far too boring, Tobus."

"Wait, hang on, was that dinner party with Josh and Donna just a scheme to get Bartlet with that science woman?"

"Abbey Barrington is head of the Biology Department."

"Whatever. CJ, tell me that wasn't just a setup!"

"It was also a very nice evening with our friends," CJ evaded.

Toby huffed, "Why didn't you tell me!?"

CJ rolled her eyes. "Oh gee, I can't imagine why I didn't inform you. Maybe because you get like this," she said, gesturing at his ridiculous overreaction.

"Well, just for that, I'm not going to tell you what I know about Leo."

"You just told me you don't know anything."

"You don't know that I wasn't lying."

"Actually, you're not really that cryptic, buddy." And with that, CJ folded the newspaper and left Toby's office, feeling mildly pleased with herself. It was fun to rile Toby up sometimes. It kept him on his toes. He got bored easily.

On her way back to her office, CJ ran into one of the people now consuming the unused parts of her mind. For not the first time, she almost didn't notice the diminutive blonde.

"Oh god, Annabeth, I'm sorry, hi!" she stumbled.

"Hey there, CJ. How are you?"

CJ smiled. That tiny woman was always so pleasant. "I'm fine. How are you? You seem happy."

Annabeth just beamed up at her tall boss. "Walking on air, CJ."

"Yeah? Hot date tonight?"

"Actually, yeah," Annabeth laughed. She continued down to her own office, waving at CJ behind her.

CJ was left in the hallway even more curious than she had been before. Maybe she'd harass Leo about it tomorrow.

On the other side of campus, Abbey was cleaning up her lab with Zoey. "Make sure you get those petri dishes, Zo. They need the sanitizer. The test tubes can just be regular washed. Those only had water today."

Zoey nodded. "Yep, got it."

Abbey, for not the first time, was pleased that her lab assistant was her own daughter. They spent more time together, got to relate to one another as colleagues, and Abbey had the good fortune of getting to boss her around more than she would with a typical grad student. "I'm going to do a quick check of the reports from the intro class in my office. Come get me when you're done and we can go home. Unless you've got plans tonight."

"I think I'm going to study with Charlie, but I'll go home with you first. We didn't decide who's place we'll work at," Zoey responded.

With a nod, Abbey went off to her office. And it was just in time. The phone began to ring. "This is Professor Barrington," she answered, grimacing from where she'd hit her knee on the desk rushing to grab the phone.

A slight chuckled sounded on the line. "Hello, Professor Barrington. This is Professor Bartlet."

"My my, as I live and breathe, could this really be my gentleman suitor?" she replied in joking melodramatics.

He laughed, "Why yes, fair maiden, 'tis I!"

"It's been far too long since I was a maiden, but we can move right past that. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"We have been invited on a double date tonight, if you're game."

That piqued Abbey's interest. "Double date? With who?"

"I believe the proper phrasing there is 'with whom,' actually," he corrected.

"Jed, you're lucky I already like you, because you are truly obnoxious."

"Same could be said for you, but we digress. Leo wants us to go out with him and his new woman. He hasn't said a word about her, but I understand it's serious."

"It looked pretty serious when I met her, yeah," Abbey confirmed.

"Wait, you met her? When?"

"On our first non-date at the restaurant when I was abandoned."

"Abbey…"

She gave a slight laugh, cutting off whatever warning he was going to give her. "Oh, are we not joking about that yet? Still too soon? Noted. Anyway, yes, I've met her. Leo swore me to secrecy, so I won't say anything else on the matter. But she seemed really lovely, and I don't really have a baseline for Leo, but he seemed quite taken with her. And for good reason, by the looks of them together."

"You're being very cryptic," Jed grumbled.

"I guess you'll find out tonight. Where are we going?"

"Strangely enough, back to that same restaurant. Maybe I can redeem myself there."

"I don't doubt that you can. What time?"

"We'll meet Leo there at seven-thirty. So I can pick you up at seven."

Abbey paused. "Actually, I think I'll drive myself, if it's all the same."

He frowned. "Really?"

"Yeah. It's easier this way."

"Well, half the fun of taking you out is kissing you goodnight."

"I have a feeling you can pin me up against a car just as well as you can pin me up against my front door."

"Is that an invitation to make a comparison?"

"Oh it most certainly is," she flirted. "So I'll see you and Leo and his lady at seven-thirty."

"I look forward to it," Jed replied, trying to get his sincerity at wanting to see her to overpower his confusion over her refusal to let him pick her up.

When Abbey hung up the phone, she spent a moment chewing on her thumbnail and staring blankly into space. Hopefully Jed hadn't paid much attention when she insisted on driving herself to the restaurant. She wasn't sure if Zoey would be home or not at seven. It was too much of a risk to have him come to the house if she was there. After all, Abbey herself had just figured out that she was ready to be in a relationship with this man. It was far too soon to involve her daughter. A small voice in the back of her head told her that Zoey was basically an adult and had been one of the driving forces in setting her up with Jed in the first place, but that didn't change anything in Abbey's mind. Making their relationship somewhat open to their colleagues and Jed's friends was one thing, but Zoey was a different matter entirely. No matter what her daughter said, Abbey knew that Zoey wasn't ready for the reality of seeing a man in the house. No, that was a problem for another day. No need to bring that up any time soon.


	16. Chapter 16

_Chapter 16_

Leo stood in front of the restaurant, fidgeting with the end of his scarf. Annabeth watched him for a moment before taking his hand in hers. She was momentarily very glad it wasn't yet cold enough to need gloves.

"Don't be nervous. Everything is going to be fine," she assured him.

He gave her a crooked smile, giving her hand a squeeze. "I'm not nervous," he fibbed.

"All your 'not nervous' is starting to make me jumpy!"

"Sorry," he chuckled, pulling her close to him.

Annabeth nuzzled into his coat, enjoying the quiet moment of soft intimacy.

Leo saw a brunette walk toward them with great purpose. He waved her over and nudged Annabeth. "Abbey's here."

"Hi, Leo," Abbey greeted. "Annabeth, it's nice to see you again. I hope you weren't waiting for me long. You should have made Jed stand out in the cold."

"Oh we would have. But your boyfriend isn't here yet," Leo quipped.

Abbey couldn't help but smile. This was the first time anyone had referred to Jed as her boyfriend. And to her genuine surprise, she loved it.

Jed jogged up a moment later. "Hi, am I late?"

Abbey smirked, her eyes shining mischievously. "We were waiting, boyfriend."

He gave her a questioning look, but his mouth ticked into a smile. Jed turned his attention to his friend. "So Leo, this must be the woman I've heard nothing about."

Annabeth extended her hand and gave her sunniest smile. "It's so nice to meet you, Professor Bartlet. I'm Annabeth Schott."

"She teaches Intro to Communications," Abbey added.

Jed shook Annabeth's hand heartily. "Professor Schott, it is truly a pleasure. And I look forward to getting to know you, but perhaps we could do it indoors."

Leo led the way to the hostess podium and to their table. Once again, the staff all greeted Abbey happily. They seemed to all know Leo and Annabeth as well. Clearly this was a regular spot for all of them. Jed was fascinated at all the things his best friend had been able to keep from him during his early relationship with this Annabeth Schott.

As soon as they sat down with menus, Jed launched into a long-winded lesson about the origin of duck confit. Leo rolled his eyes. Annabeth paid polite attention. Abbey couldn't stop smiling as she watched him.

Leo watched the look on Abbey's face and it filled him with joy. He'd never seen a woman look at Jed Bartlet like that before. It was about time. And, upon reflection, Leo realized that Annabeth often looked at him that way too. He subtly reached for her hand under the table, stroking her palm with his thumb.

"Jed, honey, I think maybe we should all read the menu over before you ruin anything else for us. I'm sure you know how the sausage is actually made but I don't need to hear about it before I eat," Abbey interrupted teasingly.

The four fell into a comfortable silence as they made their choices for dinner. The waiter came to take their orders and left them swiftly.

"Annabeth, that scarf you were wearing is absolutely beautiful," Abbey complimented.

With a beaming grin, Annabeth replied, "Thank you so much! Leo actually gave it to me for my birthday last month."

"Well you have wonderful taste, Professor McGarry."

"Yeah, yeah, Leo's great. We all know Leo. But you, Annabeth. Tell me a little about yourself," Jed prompted.

"Real subtle," Abbey muttered at him.

Undeterred, Annabeth told the table about her childhood growing up as a debutante, winning beauty pageants for scholarship money for school because her parents didn't see why a well-bred, beautiful young woman would need to go to college. So she left their home and worked her way through her Bachelor's and Master's degrees.

"I think this raises a very important question," Jed interjected.

"Yes?" Annabeth replied, equal parts curious and nervous as to what would be asked.

"When you were winning those pageants, what was your talent?"

Annabeth laughed. That wasn't what she'd expected. "I sang an aria from La Traviata."

Leo's eyes went wide. "You never told me that!"

"You never asked."

Jed grinned. "I can see why she's a good match for you, Leo. And Annabeth, I expect to hear that aria sometime. La Traviata is one of my favorite operas."

"You like opera?" Abbey asked.

"I do. Very much."

"We'll have to go sometime."

Jed nodded. He didn't say anything more on the subject, however, as their dinner had arrived.

The meal was a happy affair. Leo drank only water while the other three shared a bottle of wine. There was laughter and interesting conversation all around. Jed used any quiet moments to watch the interaction between Leo and Annabeth. He'd never seen Leo like this before. So at ease and calm. He had been like this with Jenny only rarely, and he and Jordan had never had enough time to be like this. This small, blonde Communications professor had certainly captured Leo McGarry. She looked at him with such affection, and she obviously could match his wit at every turn. Jed was very happy for his friend.

Leo was still fascinated by Jed and Abbey. He'd never seen Jed laugh so much; certainly, Jed had always been a good-humored man, but never so boisterously full of laughter. Leo lost count of the number of times Abbey caught Jed watching her and they shared a smile. It was like watching magnets in slow motion. The undeniable attraction and perfect fit of the two of them was palpable. This was nothing like when Jed had been with Linda. Leo was very happy for his friend.

After dinner, the men argued good-naturedly over the check. Leo ended up paying, insisting that he was the one to invite them all to dinner so it was his responsibility to take care of it. The four walked out into the night together.

"So Annabeth, I'll call you later this week about lunch."

"Perfect. I look forward to it, Abbey."

As the women made their plans, Jed and Leo shared a meaningful look, a look that ensured that the two of them would be having a conversation sometime soon. But they both gave a slight nod to the other, a silent symbol of approval of the mate the other had chosen. They were both very lucky.

"Leo, thanks for dinner," Jed said once more. "Abbey, I'll walk you to your car."

Abbey pressed her lips together to keep from laughing. She knew exactly what he was looking to do with this gallant act of chivalry.

"I still don't see why you needed to drive yourself," Jed commented.

"It's easier this way," she replied simply. "But look, here we are." They'd arrived at her blue sedan. She clicked the key to unlock the doors but didn't make a move to get in the car.

"So I guess this is goodnight," Jed remarked quietly.

"I guess so."

Before moving in for a kiss, Jed paused. "I meant to ask, you called me 'boyfriend' earlier."

"That wasn't a question," Abbey pointed out.

Jed ignored that. "So I'm your boyfriend now?"

"If that's alright with you, yeah."

His whole face broke into a joyful smile. "Yeah. I think I like having a girlfriend."

"Good. Because you're stuck with me." With that, Abbey pulled him gently by the lapels of his coat and kissed him deeply.

They remained that way for quite some time. Jed held her tight, pressing her up against the side of her car and getting as close to her body as he possibly could. Abbey reveled in the feeling of him against her. She ran her fingers through his thick hair as she caressed his tongue with her own.

Eventually, the cold overtook them. Abbey began to shiver, despite the heat Jed had generated within her. They broke apart reluctantly.

"I should let you get home," Jed said resignedly.

Abbey sighed. "I guess so. We can't very well be out here all night."

"No, that wouldn't do," he agreed. He stroked her cheek and gave her one last soft kiss before telling her goodnight.

Abbey got in her car and immediately started the engine to get the heater going. She hated to go. She hated to leave him. They'd had such a lovely evening with people she could tell would become very good friends. All Abbey had waiting at home was an empty house and a cold, empty bed.

As she drove, Abbey remembered that Zoey had told her she'd be spending the night with Charlie. The house would really be empty. She sighed aloud to herself.

Jed sat in his car for a few minutes after he left Abbey. He knew he needed to go home, but he didn't want to. There was nothing waiting for him there. Everything was so cold and lonely. Abbey had brought light to his world, and being without her now felt conspicuously dark. But he drove home anyway, knowing that sitting in the parking lot didn't do anyone any good.

When he got home, a blue sedan was waiting in his driveway. He parked beside it, confused. Abbey was sitting on the glider on the porch.

"What are you doing here?" he asked with surprise.

"I didn't want to be alone," she said simply.

"I'm flattered you chose me."

Abbey just smiled.

Jed considered things for a moment before walking past her to open the front door. "Can I make you a drink?"

She followed him inside.


	17. Chapter 17

_Chapter 17_

Jed poured each of them a glass of the nicest cognac he had. "Cheers," he said, clinking her glass with his. They each took a sip, maintaining eye contact the entire time.

"This is really good," Abbey noted.

"I save it for special occasions, so I don't get to drink it often," Jed replied.

"Is this a special occasion?"

"You being here is special. But we can make it an occasion, if you want," he responded.

Abbey just smiled and took another sip.

After a few moments of silence, Jed spoke again. "What are you doing here, Abbey?" he asked quietly. He was at a loss of what to do, not knowing what to expect out of the situation.

Abbey honestly didn't know why she was there. She didn't want to be without him. She suddenly felt very foolish. "I should go…"

"No, you shouldn't," he disagreed. "I don't want you to go but I…Abbey what do you want?"

"I don't want to go," she admitted.

"Okay." He waited for her to continue.

She hesitated for a beat. "Can I stay the night with you?" she asked in a very small voice.

"Of course." He downed the rest of his drink. "Now, unless you've got an overnight bag hidden in that purse, I'll have to locate a few things."

"Oh I really didn't think this through," Abbey realized.

"No, it's no trouble. I don't often entertain a lady overnight, or ever, really, but I'm not completely unprepared for guests."

"Is that so?"

"Sure. I've got a brand new toothbrush in the bathroom cabinet, and if the idea doesn't offend you, you're welcome to a set of my pajamas."

Abbey let out an amused puff of air. "That sounds just fine."

"Come on, let's get you settled and we can watch TV or something before bed." Jed didn't want to make any assumptions about her presence. And, truth be told, he was exhausted after a long day of work and a few glasses of wine with dinner.

Abbey followed Jed back to his bedroom. She shouldn't have been surprised, but her jaw dropped anyway. One entire wall was a built-in bookcase packed to the gills with tomes of every variety. Religious texts, historical biographies, academic treatises, and anything else a person could imagine.

Jed was busy rummaging through his dresser. "Okay so I've got pinstripes or the plain blue. Do you have a preference?...Abbey?" He turned to see her looking at all the titles on the opposite wall. He chuckled. "Maybe we'll read instead of watching TV. Come here and pick something to wear. Get comfortable and then you can have free reign over the books, okay?"

Abbey grinned widely. She took the blue pajamas from him.

"Toothbrush is on the counter for you."

She paused, giving him a kiss on the cheek. "Thank you."

As he watched her close the door of the bathroom behind him, Jed couldn't help but blush. Here she was, in his home, in his bedroom, and soon to be in his bed. It was as though his dreams had come true, his prayers answered, and his hopes fulfilled. And he felt confident that, regardless of what happened tonight, it was exactly what he wanted. He was ready. He was very sure of that now. With Abbey near, he had no doubts.

Abbey stared at herself in the mirror and was surprised at what she saw. Her skin looked brighter than expected. Her eyes were tired but so very alive. She knew Jed had brought her that. Abbey realized she hadn't been this happy in a long time. Being with Jed Bartlet had brought her back to life. And she hadn't even really realized she'd been dying.

When she came out of the bathroom, wearing his pajamas, he looked her up and down and practically beamed. "You look a lot better in those than I do."

She popped her foot up behind herself in a cute pose. "It's a talent of mine."

He laughed. "I'm going to brush my teeth. You pick something to read and get comfortable. Is there anything else you need? Anything you couldn't?"

"No, I'm fine, Jed," she assured him.

While he was in the bathroom, she wandered back over to that magical bookshelf. There were so many choices, it made her dizzy. But one book caught her eye, giving her an idea. She pulled it off the shelf and leafed through it.

Jed came back out a minute later. "Find something you like?" he asked.

Abbey turned to him and nodded. "I was thinking maybe you could read to me."

"Me read to you? Why?"

She gave a small shrug. "I like the sound of your voice. And hearing you talk about duck for a full ten minutes tonight at the restaurant made me want to watch you teach sometime. So since I can't do that until tomorrow at least, I thought you could read to me instead."

Jed was flattered at her words. "Alright," he agreed.

Abbey was about to get into bed when she paused. "Which side do you sleep on?"

"I don't have a side. I haven't shared a bed with anyone for a very long time," he confessed. "Pick whichever side you'd like."

She pulled back the covers on the side she was already standing near. "I have tried my best to use my whole bed for years, but I always end up on the right."

Jed got under the covers on her left and rearranged the pillows in a comfortable fashion. She handed him the book she had chosen. He was pleased to see it was a book of ancient poetry. "A fan of the Romans, are you?"

"Not particularly. But I would guess that you are. So if you like it, I'll like listening to you read it," she reasoned.

He nodded and opened the book to the first poem by Virgil. Abbey settled into bed, snuggling up to his side as he put his arm around her, holding the book in front of them. Jed recited the pastoral poems in a soft but expressive voice. Abbey's mouth curved into a satisfied smile and her eyes got heavy. She let the sounds wash over her, enveloping her in a safe blanket of affection and gravitas.

It took a while before Jed noticed that Abbey had fallen asleep. He paused in between poems and didn't hear any witty comment from her. But there she was, breathing soft and deep, her cheek on his chest and her hand clutching part of his pajamas. Jed closed the book and turned out the bedside light, doing his best to keep from disturbing her. He laid down and pressed a few kisses to her face. "Goodnight, Abbey," he whispered.

She hummed gently in response, nuzzling closer to him. Jed held her in his arms and drifted off to sleep as he breathed in the faint floral scent of her hair.

Abbey was awakened the next morning to the delicate feeling of her hair being brushed away from her face. As she blinked her eyes open, she remembered where she was and she smiled.

Once Jed saw her start to wake up, he caressed her cheek with the back of his hand and leaned in to kiss her. She responded eagerly, pulling him toward her.

"That is quite possibly the best wakeup I've ever gotten," she stated after they broke apart.

"I'm sorry to wake you. You looked very peaceful. But we do have to get up and go to school," he pointed out.

She frowned. "Oh god, that's right. What time is it?"

"A little before six."

"We've got plenty of time!"

"Well, I wasn't sure how long you need to get ready for the day."

"We have plenty of time," she promised. Abbey pulled him back in for another deep kiss.

Despite the early hour, Jed was suddenly very awake. Her hands tangled in his hair as she held him tight. Her body was supple and pliant beneath him. She moved slightly, causing him to involuntarily groan. "God, you're beautiful," he murmured as he moved his mouth from her lips to her neck.

A moan of appreciation was all he got in response. Her breaths were coming very shallow now. "Don't stop," she panted. Her whole being was sparking with electric chemistry. All at once, she was full of excited anticipation, and yet she felt totally and completely safe.

Before she knew it, Jed's strong hands had found their way up the pajama top, pawing at her stomach and rips and chest. Abbey helped by unbuttoning everything she could on both of them and tossing various articles of clothing off the bed.

"Abbey…" he began, his voice trailing off with emotion and arousal.

She nodded. "Yes," she replied to his implied question.

And the next thing she knew, her whole body was erupting into fireworks. Every touch lit a new flame, every movement ignited another spark. Abbey's breathing devolved into panting cries and guttural moans.

Jed couldn't stop. He lost himself in her. Everything she did spurred him on. Even when he felt near to passing out, he found the strength to keep going. He could feel the change in her, the passion and ecstasy he was giving her. He never wanted to stop. But the way she called out his name pushed him over the edge.

He eventually collapsed, burying his face in the space between her neck and shoulder. She held him close, gently stroking his bare back as her body continued to shudder beneath him.

"That was amazing," she whispered. "Well worth waiting for."

Jed couldn't quite form words yet. He just pressed a kiss to her collar bone and dozed off.


	18. Chapter 18

_Chapter 18_

Abbey blinked her eyes open and looked over to the alarm clock across the bed from her. "Jed," she murmured, nudging him beside her. "Babe, it's almost eight."

He groaned into her neck in acknowledgment.

She chuckled and put feather kisses on the top of his ear, conveniently located by her mouth. "I have to shower and get to my office before my ten-thirty lab."

"Yeah, okay," he said resignedly. He rolled over to free her from his embrace.

Abbey got up and put the pajama top around her on her way to the bathroom.

Jed was fully awakened by the sound of the shower. Despite wanting to stay in bed with her all day, he knew they both had to return to the reality of a Thursday morning in early October. They had to get to campus and prepare for their classes.

He put on his bathrobe and went to make some breakfast. He figured he'd have toast and eggs ready by the time Abbey got out of the shower.

Abbey washed her hair with the surprisingly nice shampoo and conditioner she found in Jed's bathroom. It was then with a great deal of shame that she put on her clothes from the night before. And, thanks to their wonderful morning, she knew she wouldn't have time to go home and change before class.

She opened the bathroom door to find the bedroom. Barefoot, she wandered down the hall toward the sounds and smells wafting from the kitchen.

"Scrambled eggs and toast!" Jed announced proudly. He put together a plate to hand to her. He did his best to keep from laughing when he saw her. She had her cocktail dress on but there were no shoes on her feet and her hair was wrapped in a towel. "You look very beautiful and very clean," he commented, giving her a kiss on the cheek as she walked by.

"Well, I had to get clean after we woke up and got so dirty," she replied with a smirk. She sat down at the kitchen table with her food. "By the way, I hope it's alright I used this towel."

"Of course. What's mine is yours." Jed came to sit across from her, and they both dug into their breakfast.

Abbey made causal small talk about how the eggs were exactly how she liked them, how she enjoyed the bread he'd used for the toast. She found it very distracting to have him run his foot up and down her bare calf. Abbey couldn't recall a nicer morning in all her life.

Once they both finished eating, Abbey helped Jed with the dishes, just as she had when they'd had dinner in that very place a few short weeks earlier. "Abbey," he said, looking at the clock on the microwave, "don't you have to go?"

"We aren't done with the dishes yet."

"I can finish cleaning up. I don't have class until after lunch, but I don't want you to be late to your students. You already look to good for them. It simply wouldn't do for you to show up late and looking so ravishing."

"I've already been ravished today," she quipped.

He laughed, "Yes, and that's why you're going to be late."

"Fine. Thank you. For everything," she said gesturing generically. She gave him one last kiss before going to the bedroom to grab the rest of her things and rush out the door.

She arrived in her office about four minutes before class was due to start. Just enough time to throw on and fully button a lab coat to cover up her dress. Thankfully, Zoey wasn't in the office when Abbey got there; the last thing she wanted to do was explain a walk of shame to her daughter. She had just enough time to pin her damp hair up into a minimally-presentable style before dashing across the building to her lab classroom. And from there, the morning went along just as it was supposed to.

Two hours later, Abbey was back in her office, having escaped the myriad of student questions, ranging in their utility from "When is the final lab report due?" to "Is the midterm going to be closed-book?" Typically, most questions could be easily brushed aside by directing students to the syllabus. But most undergrads were either too bogged down with other coursework or partying too hard bother reading a syllabus.

She had just collapsed down into her chair when a knock came at her door. With an internal groan, she called for the visitor to enter. She moved some papers around to appear busy, hopefully deterring anyone from staying too long.

"How was class?"

The familiar voice made her look up and smile. "Class was just fine. Made it in the nick of time, actually. What are you doing here?"

Jed came to the other side of her desk, right beside where she sat. "I just wanted to see you before I have to rush off to class."

"That's very sweet."

"I made the bed after I took my shower, and the sheets smell like you," he said quietly, leaning down to kiss her. "Mmmm," he hummed, "I got spoiled, getting to taste you first thing in the morning."

"Developing an addictive habit, are you?"

"I'm hopelessly dependent." Jed's blue eyes sparkled with affection as he looked at her sitting there, gazing up at him. He wanted to memorize every part of her face in this moment. Leo had said once about Jenny—or was it Jordan?—that looking at a woman look at you was lovemaking all its own. This was the first time Jed had really understood what that meant. "By the way, Abbey, we didn't really talk about Leo and Annabeth."

She cocked her head in curiosity. "Were we supposed to talk about them?"

"You seemed to get along with them both, but you are a very intuitive person, so I'm curious about your take on their…situation."

"They seem very happy. Very well-matched. I don't know either of them very well yet, but I did genuinely enjoy the evening with them. Is there anything else you were looking for?" Abbey kept her face in a bemused expression, unsure where this was going.

"No, I just wanted to know if you had an opinion. It's just that Leo is my best friend and he's not had the best luck with relationships. He said Annabeth was different, and this was the first time I met her, so I just want to be objective in case he wants to know what I think about her."

"And what do you think about her?"

"She's lovely. Incredibly bright and beautiful and kind. Good sense of humor and strong. Strong enough to match him, which is no easy feat. Leo has had a very difficult life full of tragedy, and I know he's put this woman on a pedestal. I just don't want her to fall off and crush his hopes."

"I think that all depends on the kind of pedestal he's put her on. She is human and flawed like anyone else. If he looks at her like his savior, a shining light to lift him out of his pain, that's all well and good. But if he's depending on her to be infallible for him, he's going to be sorely disappointed. It isn't fair to anyone to put that pressure on a relationship," Abbey countered.

Jed nodded. "That's true. I think he does recognize that she's human, but I also think he counts himself lucky and blessed that such a wonderful woman would want to be with him. He might not really feel worthy of that."

"Well that's an incredibly sad statement. He's worthy of love and happiness. He's a brilliant, kind, funny, wonderful man. Any woman would be lucky to be the focus of the kind of love he's capable of. I hope he doesn't waste time worrying about being worthy or not and instead focusing on making their relationship strong and happy."

"I agree. But in the back of his head, I'm sure he's worried about whether or not she feels the same way, and if she doesn't, what will happen to him when she leaves."

Abbey didn't quite know when they stopped actually talking about Leo and Annabeth and when it had morphed into a metaphor for Jed and herself, but here they were. She chose her words very carefully. "I don't think she has any intention of leaving. They haven't been together long, but she seems very comfortable with him. When they're together, she's utterly devoted to him. The happy bubble of their relationship is the best thing about her life, I'm sure."

"But it is still new. They haven't been together too long, like you said. He's probably recognizing that he's fallen hard and fast and doesn't know how to convey that without scaring her off."

"He isn't going to scare her off," Abbey replied emphatically. She stood up from her chair, meeting Jed's eyeline. "She's probably never fallen so hard or fast herself, and the only thing that scares her is the power and depth of her own feelings for him. And even that isn't so scary."

The corners of his mouth ticked up into a small half-smile. His eyes shone, and he gave the slightest nod of comprehension. Abbey nodded more noticeably. She put her hands on his face, tracing his cheeks with her thumbs, studying the way he looked in that moment. After a moment, she pulled him close, kissing him deeply.

Jed could feel everything they'd said and all they'd left unspoken through her kiss. He treasured it and put his faith in its strength. His hands found their way to her waist, clutching the fabric of her lab coat between his fingers as he held her tight against him.

Abbey had no idea how long they stood there, making out in her office. She had half a mind to get up on the desk so he could take her then and there. But as often happens in situations such as this, and probably for the best, they were interrupted.

"Hey, Mom?"

The sound of Zoey's voice outside the door snapped Abbey out of her romantic lust. "Oh my god!" she hissed. "You can't be here right now!"

"What?" Jed was startled and confused.

"Zoey's coming! Hide, quick!"

He just blinked at her.

Abbey pushed him over to the coat closet. "In here. Just until I get rid of her, please!" she begged.

Jed got into the closet and allowed her to close the door on him.

"Yeah, Zo?" Abbey called out.

From his forced hiding place, Jed could hear the office door open and Zoey's voice say, "Hey, where have you been? I thought we were going to work on the B-samples today. The schedule says we're in the research lab from one to four. And you're never late for research."

"Oh, I'm sorry, baby girl. I just lost track of time." Which wasn't precisely a lie.

"Mom, are you okay? Did you not sleep last night? You look tired and your face is a little flushed."

Jed smirked. He knew the flush was probably from the strange panic that had forced him into the closet, but he liked to think that their makeout session had something to do with it too.

"No, I'm fine. There's just a lot going on here. By the way, did you have a nice night with Charlie last night?"

"Yeah, it was the same as usual. We did homework and then had takeout for dinner and watched a movie before bed. We got up early because Charlie had office hours this morning. I went home to change, but you must have already left."

Abbey nodded. "Well, here we are. And I don't think we'll be in the lab until four today. I have a mountain of grading to do, and I want to get home early today. So why don't you go get the B-samples out of the centrifuge and I'll be there in just a minute," she suggested.

Zoey agreed and left the office. Abbey waited a few seconds after she'd gone to make sure she didn't come back right away. When she thought the coast was clear, she let Jed out of the closet.

"Well, that was interesting," he stated.

"I'm so sorry, Jed. I should have known what time it was so she wouldn't come barging in like that. It won't happen again, I promise."

Jed didn't say anything. He knew better than to question a mother when it came to her daughter. So for now, he wouldn't ask why Abbey was so terrified at the idea of Zoey knowing about their relationship, or when she would tell Zoey about their relationship, or if this apprehension about Zoey was going to be a problem. No, none of that needed to be addressed yet. For now, they could stay in their happy bubble.


	19. Chapter 19

_Chapter 19_

For nearly a month, Abbey spent a handful of nights a week staying at Jed's house. These nights coincided with the nights that Zoey spent at Charlie's apartment, which was no accident. But when Abbey arrived at Jed's door around dinner time, he always welcomed her happily.

They settled into an easy rhythm together. They took turns cooking for each other. They always shared the chore of cleaning everything up. Jed always read to Abbey before bed. They usually ended or began the day by making love. Sometimes both.

Despite never addressing it specifically, Jed had cleared out part of his closet and a drawer out for her in his dresser. She had her own set of towels and toothbrush in the bathroom. Abbey had moved almost a full week's worth of a wardrobe to his house and kept most of her makeup there as well. She never spent a night with him without being ready to go right to work the next day, which she usually did.

"Can I ask you something?" Jed questioned hesitantly one morning over their customary toast and eggs.

"Of course." Abbey looked up at him from the newspaper and took a sip of coffee.

"Not that I mind at all…in fact, I love having you here, but…is there a reason you're here every other day?"

Her brow furrowed. "What do you mean?"

"I guess I wonder why we're never at your house. I mean, I know Zoey's there, but I've never been beyond your kitchen. Actually, I don't think I've even seen Zoey since we started seeing each other more seriously."

"She's busy. And we don't want to bother her by being there," Abbey responded with a stoic voice.

Jed continued, "Doesn't she think it's strange that you're not home half the time?"

"She doesn't know. I only come over when she stays with Charlie," she admitted. She turned the page of her section of the newspaper, hoping to end this conversation by appearing casual and disinterested.

But Jed would have none of that. "She doesn't _know_!?"

Abbey flattened her paper in front of her. "Why should she know? This has nothing to do with her," she insisted.

"You're her mother!"

"And she's a baby."

"Well, if she's spending as much time with Charlie as you spend here, she's no baby," he snapped. Jed sighed heavily. "I didn't think this was going to be such a big deal," he muttered.

"This isn't a big deal, Jed! _She_ and I have our life, and _you_ and I have our life."

That struck the exact chord Jed had been afraid of. "So your daughter and your home are your life and I'm just the guy you're sleeping with when she's not around, is that it?"

Abbey's jaw dropped in surprise. That wasn't what she meant at all.

Jed continued, "I cannot fathom why you haven't told Zoey anything and why you're hiding me from her. I thought you were on your way to moving in with me, but I guess I was wrong about the state of our relationship."

She felt horribly guilty, knowing he was exactly right. She considered her words carefully as he watched her carefully. "I don't want her to think she has a new father."

He blinked and shook his head in confusion. That wasn't what he'd expected at all. "What?"

"I haven't been serious with any man her entire life. We've talked about this. I've dated, but it's always been secondary to Zoey. Which is how it should be. I don't want her to get attached to a man who's just going to leave her like the last one did," she said quietly.

"Abbey, she's an adult."

"I don't think any girl is ever an adult about gaining or losing a parental figure. I don't ever want her to feel abandoned, especially not because someone leaving _me_ ends up leaving _her_ , too," she explained. "Not again."

Jed gave a small smile. He reached across the kitchen table to hold Abbey's hands in his. "First off, you are a wonderful mother, and your child should always be your first priority. Your child should not, however, be an excuse to keep yourself from being happy."

"But I'm not…"

"Secondly," he interjected, cutting off whatever she was going to say. "Zoey is an adult, despite what you might want to think. I have no intention of being her parent. I am not going to try to ground her for staying out late or send her to her room for not eating her vegetables or anything else like that. Because she's an adult. If she ever came to me for advice, I'd probably send her back to you, or I'd help her in the same way I'd help Donna or Charlie or CJ or any other younger person who came to me for any reason. That isn't being a father, that's just being a lonely middle-aged man."

"Not lonely anymore, I hope," Abbey said, giving his hand a squeeze.

"No, not lonely anymore. But I think we're both skirting the real issue here, honey."

"Oh?"

"If you're so worried about Zoey getting abandoned, is it because you think I'm going to leave you?"

A knot tightened in the pit of Abbey's stomach. She didn't like thinking about 'the end' of things, but it was an unfortunate side-effect of her personality. And she had never really pictured a reality where she and Jed ended things. It was more of an amorphous concept, that one day they wouldn't be together, and where would she be? It was just easier to imagine that Zoey wouldn't be a part of that circumstance.

Jed could see flashes of thought cross Abbey's face. He let go of her hands. "You don't need to have an answer to that. And you don't need to tell Zoey anything, if you don't want. But you should keep in mind that I'll be right here. I'll wait for you to be ready, however long that takes."

Abbey's mind was flooded with the words Leo had said to her that day in his office. _For you, he'll wait_. She broke into a smile. "Come over for dinner tonight. And stay over."

"Really? Abbey, I didn't mean to coerce you into anything. I was just bringing up a point."

"No, I want to. You're right that I'm making excuses with Zoey. And I don't need to. It's just habit, I guess. I don't want you to go anywhere, and I don't want you to wait for me when there's no reason to. I'm not going anywhere, either," she promised.

Due to a series of unrelated events, Zoey was detained for the rest of the day with her other classes and social obligations. She didn't see or hear from her mother until she got home well after four o'clock. Surprisingly, she found the kitchen in disarray. "Um. Mom?"

Abbey turned from her furious chopping. "Hey baby girl!" she greeted.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm cooking. What does it look like I'm doing?" Abbey replied.

Zoey tentatively ventured into the kitchen. "I can see that you're cooking, but you've got enough carrots there to feed a dozen rabbits for like a year."

"Your hyperbole aside, I'm not just cooking for us. We're having company."

"We are?"

"Yes. I would have told you earlier, but I didn't want to bother you while you were working with Professor Gardner."

Zoey was becoming increasingly annoyed with the scant information she was getting. "Mom, what's going on?"

Abbey stopped in earnest, putting down the knife and wiping her hands on the yellow apron she was wearing. "Jed Bartlet is coming over for dinner."

"Really? I didn't know you were still seeing him."

"You knew I was seeing him?"

"Well, I assumed you were after Charlie and I put you guys together at the bar that one night. I thought you went out a few times, but I never heard anything, so I didn't know what was going on."

Abbey nodded. "I didn't want you to know anything."

"Why not?"

"I guess because I didn't want you to get involved if I wasn't confident in the relationship. You never knew any of the other men I've dated when you were younger. So I guess it was just habit."

"But wait, you've been seeing him since that night at the bar? It's been months!" Zoey exclaimed in confusion.

"I know. Every night you spend with Charlie is a night I spend with Jed," Abbey admitted.

Zoey's eyes went wide. "He's been sleeping here!?"

"No, I've been staying at his house. It's only a few miles away."

"So why are you telling me all this now?" she asked accusingly.

"Because my boyfriend is coming to dinner so he can meet you properly. Because it's time. I don't want to hide him anymore, and I shouldn't have to."

"You never had to hide anything, Mom. I am twenty-four."

Abbey reached out and stroked her daughter's cheek. "I know that, but you'll always be my baby. And it's been just you and me for a long time."

"So it's not just you and me anymore?"

"You spend the evening with Jed here and we can see."

Zoey considered this quietly for a moment. Nothing like this had ever happened before. She wasn't quite sure what to think. "Hey Mom, can Charlie come for dinner, too?"

"Of course. Charlie is always welcome. And we do have plenty of food."

With a nod, Zoey left to call her boyfriend to beg him to come over for dinner so she didn't have to spend the evening with her mother's boyfriend all by herself. Once he agreed, she hung up the phone and went back to the kitchen.

"Okay, Charlie is coming."

"Great. Hand me the olive oil, would you, Zo?" Abbey asked, focused on her meal.

Zoey helped with some sous chef tasks as she continued to process what was going on. "So you've been seeing him since like the middle of September?"

"I think so, yeah. We had a few non-dates starting at Debbie's birthday, and then he asked me out on a real date after we were all at the bar that night."

"So it's serious?"

"Yes." Abbey didn't elaborate.

Zoey tried to decipher her mother's stoic face. "Mom, do you love him?"

"Yes." And that was all she would say on the matter. "Could you pre-heat the oven to three-fifty, please?"

Jed arrived at the house exactly on time, just as the clock chimed six. He rang the doorbell. The sounds of a scuffle came from inside as Abbey hurried to the door. She opened it, wiping her hand on her apron.

"Hi! Welcome!" she greeted, slightly out of breath.

He chuckled. "Hey there. You look very cute in that apron. I didn't know I'd be bringing something to match," he said, holding out the yellow daisy bouquet he'd brought.

She gave him a quick kiss and led him inside. "These are lovely, thank you."

"Those aren't for you. But I brought some wine, too. But you don't have to open it. I don't know what you're cooking."

"Beef Wellington and butter steamed carrots."

Immediately, his mouth began to water. "You do know how to spoil a person."

A new voice sounded from around the corner. "You must be special. She never makes this for us."

Jed and Abbey turned to see Zoey come from the living room. "It's nice to see you again, Zoey. These are from you," Jed said, handing over the bouquet.

"For me?" she asked, surprised.

"Of course for you. I see your mom all the time and give her presents, so she can just do with some wine this time. But I'm coming to your home for the first time and I want you to like me," he replied.

Zoey laughed and thanked him for the flowers.

"Zo, I'll put these in a vase. Why don't you and Jed join Charlie and have some drinks before dinner?" Abbey suggested.

"Can I do anything to help?" Jed offered.

"No, I've got everything under control. I'll call when everything is ready."

So Jed followed Zoey to the living room. Charlie was already pouring them all cocktails from the drink cart in the corner.

"Charlie, nice to see you after all this time."

With a grin, Charlie gave a kind nod in greeting. "Yeah, it's been all of, what, four hours since we saw each other?"

"I guess we're just fated to be together," Jed replied in jest.

Apart from her surprise at receiving a bouquet of flowers, Zoey had remained conspicuously quiet. She was watching Jed very closely. This wasn't lost on him.

In an attempt to break the ice, Jed held up his glass when Charlie handed it to him. "I'd like to propose a toast to those of us here now. I am very honored to be here tonight, and I look forward to the opportunity for us all to know each other better outside of school. So here's to Zoey and Charlie, for pushing Abbey and myself together. I can't thank you enough. Cheers."

They all clinked glasses and took a sip before settling themselves on the sofa and armchair.

Zoey took a long swig of her cocktail. Charlie watched her nervously. She cleared her throat. "So, Professor Bartlet,"

"You can call me Jed."

"Professor Bartlet," she insisted. "Tell me, what are your intentions with my mother?"

Charlie practically choked on the air. "I think I should go…" He began to get up from the sofa.

"Sit down, Charlie," Zoey and Jed said in unison. Charlie sat right back down, resigning himself to being supremely uncomfortable for the rest of the evening.

"I'm happy to answer any questions you have, Zoey," Jed replied calmly. "I don't have any 'intentions' with your mother other than to try and make her as happy as she's made me for as long as she'll let me stay around."

"I see," Zoey said dubiously. "Have you ever been married before?"

"Yes. A very long time ago."

"Divorced?"

"No. She died."

"Oh. I'm sorry."

"Thank you. But it was a very long time ago. It shouldn't concern you at all."

Zoey leaned forward, furrowing her brow in concentration. "Why are you dating my mom?"

"Because she's wonderful and my life has been exponentially better since she's been in it."

"What's your favorite thing about her?"

Jed smiled softly at the thought. "Her wit. She's brilliant, and she makes me laugh. And when she's pleased about something her smile makes her nose wrinkle, which I quite like."

Zoey smirked. "And she's pretty, right?"

"Yes, she's very pretty. Far too pretty to be seen with me," he joked.

"She has that effect on people, yeah."

Jed interjected, "Zoey, I'll tell you whatever you want to know, but I think I can save us some time and save Charlie some discomfort if I just tell you that I have no intention of ever leaving Abbey. I love her very much, and I want to be with her forever. And I want you and I to have a good relationship because it is very important to your mother. But I'm not going to try too hard to make you like me beyond always being honest with you and being here whenever you need me. Because I am not going anywhere. You can trust that." He took another sip of his drink.

Zoey just stared, stunned.

Charlie shifted his gaze between the two of them. Bartlet sat there, calmly waiting. Zoey wasn't moving. He stood up and took her arm. "Zoey, can I talk to you for a second?"

She numbly followed him down the hallway, out of earshot.

"Are you okay? I mean…isn't this what you wanted when you decided to set them up? I know the reality might be a little weird, but isn't it great how happy she's been?"

Zoey processed and began to smile. "Yeah. She's really, really happy. And I'm so glad it's him. I mean, you wouldn't love him if he weren't great, and he is. And I think, after they get married, I'm going to call him Dad. If it isn't weird for him. Do you think it would be weird?"

"Honestly, I think it's really unfortunate that he isn't a father already. He's the closest thing I've ever had to a father, and if he does marry your mom…"

"Oh he will. Don't you think he's the type to want things to be official and stuff?"

"Yeah, probably. So I guess _when_ he marries your mom, I think you guys will make a great family."

"And unless you're planning on going somewhere, you're a part of that family too."

Charlie leaned in and kissed her. "I'm not going anywhere either."

"Good."

Meanwhile, Jed disliked sitting alone in the living room so he wandered into the kitchen to see Abbey. "How's everything going?"

"I told you, I have everything under control!"

"And I believe you. But I got lonely, so I thought I'd watch you make dinner. Maybe I'd get lucky enough to see you bend down and take something out of the oven."

Abbey burst into laugher. "Well, just for that…" She took the beef out, giving a little shake as she bent down.

"Oh yeah, just like that…" he hummed, only half-teasing.

She looked at him over her shoulder, her nose wrinkling in that way he loved. "So were the kids bugging you, or did you just want to get some mental images of me?"

"Well, the latter is always true, but the kids left me, so I figured I'd join you in here."

"They left?"

"Zoey asked me a lot of questions and I answered her and I don't know if she liked that or not, so Charlie took her away to talk to her."

"Oh dear," Abbey said with a frown.

"No, I'm not worried. But I think it's a lot for one person to get in one day. Didn't you just tell her about us this afternoon?"

"Yes."

"Well, now she's heard it from both of us. But I think she'll be fine."

"Yeah?"

Jed came to put his arm around her shoulders and gave her a squeeze. "Yeah. Everything's fine." He kissed her temple. "Now, let's get this dinner on the table. I'm starving."

A few minutes later, the four of them gathered around the old scrubbed wood table in the kitchen. Instinctively, Zoey reached her hands out to her mother on one side and Charlie on the other. Jed was confused but followed suit.

"They always say grace before dinner," Charlie explained to him quietly. "They're Catholic."

That was news to Jed Bartlet. He smiled as he bowed his head. Zoey recited the prayer aloud, and he said his own silently, thanking God above for bringing him a love beyond his wildest dreams and, finally, a family.


	20. Chapter 20

_Chapter 20_

The sound of the doorbell made Abbey jump, causing her to burn her finger on the stove. "Dammit!" she swore. "Would someone get the door?" she called out to the rest of the house.

"I've got it!" Jed yelled back, making his way to the foyer. He opened the door and greeted the Lymans. "Hey there, you two! Welcome!"

Donna immediately came inside to give him a big hug. "Happy Thanksgiving!"

Jed very happily returned her embrace. "And a Happy Thanksgiving to you," he replied, mildly distracted by something he felt while hugging her, but chose to ignore it. He let go of her and shook Josh's hand heartily. "Joshua, it's nice to see you, as always."

"Thanks so much for having us." Josh held out a bottle of wine. "We brought this," he added awkwardly.

Jed took the bottle and led them into the house. "I'll put this over on the drink cart. Abbey's in the kitchen, cooking like a maniac, if you want to go say hi. It's right back there," he pointed. "And Zoey is out with Charlie picking up some last minute things that I insisted were in the house but Abbey didn't confirm weren't actually there until this morning."

Donna laughed. "Such as?"

"Nutmeg, dried thyme, and cloves," Jed muttered with mild shame.

The Lymans went to say hello to their hostess and the doorbell rang again. Jed quickly put the wine in the living room and went to get the door again. This time it was CJ and Toby. Will and Kate pulled up just as Jed was greeting the Communications professors.

"You guys need a hand?" Jed asked as Will Bailey began struggling with the items in the trunk.

"Yes, actually," Will replied resignedly.

"You know, you do have to figure out how to do this on your own," Kate pointed out. She would have done it herself, but she had her hands full.

Jed walked over to them and immediately ignored Will's dilemma. "This must be little Nancy Harper-Bailey!" he gushed.

Kate smiled and allowed Jed to hold the baby. She took the opportunity to help her husband get the stroller and diaper bag out of the car. Jed cooed at the little blonde baby in his arms. Her dark brown eyes sparkled as she giggled up at him. He barely paid attention to anything else as he followed Will and Kate into the house.

CJ saw Jed come inside and melted at the sight. "Uh oh, looks like someone's made a new friend."

"You know, it's only been two minutes, but I can already tell that Nancy is the most rational and understanding person in this house," Jed quipped.

Toby was watching from the living room with a smile. He craned his neck around the corner to the kitchen. "Abbey, there's another woman stealing your man away."

"What?" With a confused look in her eyes, Abbey paused her frantic cooking and went into the living room to see the rest of her guests. She found the most precious scene awaiting her. "Jed Bartlet, you let me see that baby right now!" she exclaimed, coming over to say hello. "Oh she is the most beautiful little thing!"

Kate couldn't help but laugh. "She's the best behaved baby. Everyone likes us so much more now that she's around. But as soon as she starts to cry, you're all going to hate us."

"Parenthood treating you pretty good?" Josh asked.

"It's pretty amazing, yeah," Will replied softly.

"A house full of women isn't too hard on you, is it?" CJ teased.

"Are you kidding?" Kate interrupted. "He's wanted a girl from the beginning. I'm the one afraid she's going to be more interested in dresses than soccer, and then where will I be?"

"You've got plenty of time to brainwash her, Commander Harper," Jed assured her.

The garage door opened and Charlie and Zoey came in. "The rescuers have returned!" Zoey announced. "Mom, I'm going to put everything in the kitchen and then say hi to everyone, okay?"

"Here, I'll join you," Abbey responded, tearing herself away from the baby.

Charlie came to greet everyone and told Jed, "Professor McGarry just pulled up."

Right on cue, the doorbell rang again. Jed returned Nancy to her parents and went to greet Leo and Annabeth. "Nice of you to show up," he said sarcastically.

"It's all my fault," Annabeth insisted. "We were halfway here when I realized I forgot the hostess gift." She was carrying a large bouquet of mixed flowers.

"That's quite alright," Jed replied. He looked past them out to the car. "No Mallory?"

"Nah, she and Sam are spending the holiday with Jenny."

Josh overheard Leo's statement. "Sam? I thought he and Ainsley were back on?"

"Who knows with Sam?" Leo said, shaking his head. "I don't even want to know. But they aren't here."

"Too bad," Toby said, inserting himself into the conversation. "I was looking forward to kicking his ass in football. A little payback from last year."

"I tell you what, Toby, if your team wins, we can all call him up so you can gloat," Jed suggested. "And actually, we might as well start right now. Let me check with Abbey, and then we can start the game."

Everyone made their way out to the backyard. Jed had already gotten everything ready for the annual football game he had with all his friends at Thanksgiving. Toby had already begun warming up his throwing arm. Josh grabbed the football and mimed a perfect spiral.

"We're going to start the game pretty soon," Jed announced to Abbey.

She looked up from the sink where she was peeling potatoes. "Alright, have fun. And don't break anything, please."

"I'll make sure the backyard stays in pristine condition."

"Yeah, that and you. I don't want you to get broken either," she added.

He chuckled and came to give her a quick kiss before going to join everyone.

Leo caught him at the door and asked in a low tone, "So everything's going well with you two?"

"It's great. I moved in about a month ago. We got a real estate agent for my house, which will go on the market just after the new year. We're getting ready for our first holiday season together. Everything is really good," Jed replied sincerely. He removed his jacket so nothing would fall out of the pockets, and put it on the back of a patio chair.

"Hey Bartlet, you're on Toby's team!" Josh called.

Leo watched his dear friend bound over to the lawn. As Jed conferred with his team, Leo took a seat on the patio furniture beside Donna, who was holding Nancy and cheering on the sidelines. Annabeth had stayed in the kitchen to help Abbey, though they were both watching out the bay window.

"So what are the teams?" Jed asked, entering a little late.

"Since Sam isn't here, I took his usual place as team captain," Josh explained. "I've got Charlie, Kate, and Will."

"I was picked last, but that's nothing new," Will said. Kate kissed his cheek, a poor consolation after she was chosen first for Josh's team.

"That gives us you, me, CJ, and Zoey," Toby finished. "Now let's get going!"

And so the game began. Toby and Josh played opposing quarterbacks. Jed, CJ, and Zoey switched off as receivers for their team. It proved difficult, however, when Charlie grabbed Zoey and picked her up in almost every play. CJ could reach above everyone's heads but was easily tackled by Kate. Jed was the sturdiest member of the team, but wasn't as athletic a runner as he used to be. Will was a decent runner but dropped the ball about half the time it ended up in his hands. Charlie was more focused on Zoey than the game itself. And Kate was easily the star player. But the teams were surprisingly evenly matched.

By the time Annabeth called everyone inside, Toby's team had just managed to break the tie to secure a narrow win.

"Ha! Take that, loser!" Zoey taunted at her boyfriend.

"You know, I will not hesitate to tackle you again," Charlie threatened with a charming grin.

Toby and Josh hurried past everyone to get inside and call Sam. Toby wanted to gloat, and Josh wanted to witness Sam's reaction.

Will and Kate went over to Donna to use their baby to console their loss.

When Jed came inside, Abbey was waiting for him. "So? Did you win?"

"Hail the conquering hero!" he announced happily.

She laughed and gave him a big hug and a kiss. "Hail indeed. Go wash up. You'll get your real prize later tonight."

"Ooh I can't wait," he murmured, kissing her one more time.

Abbey had to push him back before she forgot that they had a house full of people. "Stop that. You have to carve the turkey."

It took a few minutes for everyone to get settled at the table. Once they had all taken their seats, Jed came in carrying the platter with the perfectly roasted turkey for everyone to ooh and ah over. He stood at the head of the table with Abbey on one side of him and Zoey on the other.

"Now, before we dig in, I thought it would be nice if we all went around and said what we're thankful for. Since that is the purpose of the day. Zo, why don't you start?"

"Okay, um, I guess I'm thankful for Charlie and my family and for getting the opportunity to work and learn at a place I love so much."

Will and Kate went next, thankful for their new baby. Leo was thankful for Annabeth and for the wonderful friends he had there at the table. Annabeth said she was thankful for Leo and for CJ for being such a wonderful mentor in her professional career, and for Dolly Parton's existence.

After the laughs died down, Josh and Donna looked at each other. "Well, I guess this is as good a time as any to say that we're thankful to have a baby of our own on the way. Donna is due in April."

Everyone erupted into excited congratulations for the Lymans. All except for one person. "How am I supposed to follow that!?" CJ whined. "Ugh, fine. I guess I'm thankful for all my wonderful friends and for a job I love, which lets me boss around Toby."

Toby rolled his eyes and expressed his thanks for everyone letting him into the little family they'd created.

When it was Abbey's turn, she wasn't sure she'd be able to get the words out. "It's been an interesting few months for me, as you all probably know. So right now, I'm most thankful to all of you for being extremely heavy-handed in forcing me together with the love of my life. I've never been happier, as Zoey can attest, and it's all thanks to you all, who met me and thought I'd be good enough for Jed. So thank you all for that and for being here today in our home for this holiday. I wouldn't want to spend it with anyone else." She had to dab her eyes with her napkin to keep from making a complete fool of myself.

Jed looked around, seeing all the loving, smiling faces of all their friends, and he knew this was the perfect moment. "I think that actually provides me a nice segue, thank you, honey. I know it's a little soon, perhaps, but at this point in my life, I don't feel the need to wait around. And I am not opposed to a long engagement."

Abbey's eyes widened. "Excuse me?" Her heart fluttered and her stomach turned in knots, full of excited energy.

"Abigail Barrington, I love you more than I ever thought possible. I knew that the first moment I saw you, and I've only grown to love you more each day." He got down on one knee and took the small velvet box out of his jacket pocket. "Will you marry me?"

Behind Jed's shoulder, Zoey nodded her head emphatically as happy tears fell down her cheeks. Abbey looked at her daughter and down at Jed, completely taken by surprise. "Oh my god. I can't believe this. Yes, of course I will marry you!"

Jed put the beautiful vintage diamond ring on her finger and kissed her. Everyone cheered and applauded. Josh grumbled slightly at being overshadowed, but he couldn't be upset.

"See, I told you it would be today!" Zoey said to Charlie.

Abbey overhead her daughter and broke the kiss. "You knew!?"

"I took her with me to pick out the ring a couple weeks ago," Jed explained.

Abbey started to cry and buried her head in Jed's shoulder.

"Sweetheart, you okay?" he asked tentatively.

"I'm just so happy!" she sobbed.

Jed had to laugh. "Okay, well I think we should feed our guests. You want to sit down so I can carve the turkey?"

As Abbey descended into her chair and couldn't stop smiling. She gazed down at her ring, amazed at the turn of events, and felt a calm wash over her, a security and a contentment that Jed had created in her. And she realized that she'd feel this way for the rest of her life.

Jed looked at his fiancée out of the corner of his eye, overwhelmed with love for her, for their found family, and for their future together.

 _The End_


End file.
